THE FLORA OF MAHABLESHWAK AND MATHERAN. 107 



('cute as I know them to be), than I should have given them 

 credit for. Where does instinct end and reason begin ? Far 

 better had the birds trusted to instinct alone, for the very means 

 used to steady the nest, gave a snake the opportunity to get in it, 

 for while it was being cut down, one dropped out ; and tried to 

 escape in the long grass, but a smart tap on the back with a cane 

 stopped its further career and it proved to be a Brown Tree Snake, 

 (Dipsas gokool). 



Its stomach contained a partly digested nestling, showing that 

 it had been in the nest for some time, and had evidently meant to 

 stay until its appetite returned, when no doubt it would have 

 dined in due sequence off the remaining three, quite unconcerned 

 and apparently ignorant of the dangerous nature of their self- 

 invited guest. Full measurements of the large nest may not be 

 devoid of interest to both ologists and ornithologists. The length, 

 of the suspensory portion which is very thin, is 19 inches, the 

 bulb 9 inches and the tube 25 inches, giving a total length to the 

 nest of 53 inches. The diameter of the bulb is 6 inches one way and 

 4 inches the other. 



The tube where it joins the bulb has a diameter of barely 2 inches, 

 but it widens considerably at the end, and may be described as 

 bell-mouthed. These nests are of course most of them now in the 

 Bombay Natural History Society's Rooms. 



A CATALOGUE OF THE FLORA OF MAHABLESHWAK 

 AND MATHERAN. 



By H. M. Birdwood. 



" There is a pleasure in the pathless woods." 



When offering to the Society the Catalogue of the Flora of 

 Matheran, published at pp. 206^211 of Vol. I. of our Journal, I ex- 

 plained why it was so incomplete. It was compiled at a time of the 

 year when many herbaceous plants were dried up and. could not be 

 recognized. I have now been able to enlarge it by adding the names 

 of plants, seen, soon after the close of the last rainy season, at 

 Mahableshwar, where a great part of the Flora is identical with that 

 of Matheran; as might indeed be expected from the general simila- 

 rity of the soil and climate of the two hills. There are, no doubt, 

 certain causes regulating the distribution of plants which are not 



