366 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XV. 



wild hawk arrived here sick on 15th, and had to be destroyed on the 25th. 

 It looks rather like an epidemic disease affecting peregrine falcons this hot 

 season. All the hawks were simply devoured alive by the worms, the lungs, 

 liver, and all the other organs being perforated, and when examined it appear- 

 ed extraordinary that the hawks should have been able to live at all and feed 

 with their organs in the mangled state they were found in. My own two 

 trained hawks ate voraciously till the end, while the wild hawk refused food for 

 several days ; but they all became paralysed in the legs in precisely the same 

 manner, and of course directly this set in I had to destroy them. I have 

 here also a Laggar and two Shikras which are being fed on the same food and 

 water, but none of these have been affected. I should be very grateful if 

 any members could enlighten me as to the nature of this disease ; and it would 

 be interesting to know whether any others have observed it, and especially as 

 an epidemic among falcons or other hawks. 



S. DELME RADCLIFFE, Capt. 



(Meywar Bhil Corps). 

 Kotra, Rajputana, June, 1903. 



No. XXIII— DIOSCOREA DMMONA, ROXB. 



This is a common climber in the Thana district, known under the name of 

 Waz by the agriculturalists and wild tribes. It is described in the Flora of 

 British India as follows : — 



" Root tuberous, lobed, biennial. Stem stout, terete, more or less prickly. 

 " Leaves 3-foliolate, long-petioled ; leaflets 3-12 in., glabrous or finely pubescent 

 "beneath, all petiolulate, broadly cuneate-obovate, cuspidately caudate- 

 " acuminate, sometimes strongly reticulate, lateral very oblique 5-6 nerved, 

 " central 3-5 nerved ; petiole 6-12 in., smooth or prickly. Male racemes 6-18 

 " in., pubescent or woolly ; spikes |-J in., shortly peduncled, cylindric, dense- 

 " fid. ; bracts shorter than the flowers ; sepals orbicular-ovate, membranous, 

 " shorter than the coriaceous incurved petals ; anthers subsessile. Fern, spikes 

 "solitary, flowers distant, perianth of the male. Capsule 2-2f by 1-1| in. 

 " base and top truncately rounded. Seeds with the oblong wing broader than 

 "the nucleus." 



Distribution. 



It is found in the Tropical forests through India, Burma, and the Malay 

 Peninsula. 



Distributed — Malay Islands and Tonkin. In Thana it exists in every forest 

 up to an altitude of 2,000 to 2,100 feet, but it may easily escape notice for in the 

 dry season the stem and leaves die and often only the dried seeds may be 

 observed hanging over the leafless crown of some tree or bamboo clump. It ia 

 in the month of May that Dioscorea daemona commences vegetative activity by 

 throwing up a green shoot, and it bursts into leaf when the rains set in. The 

 flowers appear in August and are yellowish-green in colour. 



It possesses a climbing habit like most of the other Dioscoreas and is therefore 

 usually found growing beneath a tree or shrub. 



