18 FIRST LIST OF THE BIRDS OF THE SOUTH KONKAN. 



The evergreen trees of the coast, coeoanuts, betelnuts and 

 Alexandrian laurels are, to a great extent, replaced by deciduous 

 trees, such as the "Ain" (Terminalia glabra), the (i Kinjal/' 

 (Terminalia paniculata), and in a few localities by puny teak 

 (Tectona grandis). The burning of the grass and brushwood 

 for ash mauure on all the uplands and hill sides gives the 

 whole couutry side a blackened and withered appearance, 

 intensified by the leafless pollarded trees, which everywhere 

 meet your eye. But even here there are dotted about plea- 

 sant groves marking the shrines of some rustic deity, where, 

 from ages past, no branch or stick has been suffered to be cut. 

 These sacred groves are seldom of large extent, but often 

 present a mass of luxuriant vegetation. Overhead are lofty 

 trees, such as the Satvin (Alsto?iia scholaris) and the Bel 

 (Marmelos cegle), overgrown with creepers, ferns, and orchids, 

 Avhile numerous parasites, trailing in long, graceful festoons, 

 join tree to tree with endless links. Below is a mass of tangled 

 bush and scrub, dense thickets, penetrable only by one of 

 two narrow paths which lead from either end to the rude 

 temple which lies thus hidden in the inner depths of the 

 grove. 



Grand places are these groves for Woodpeckers of all 

 sorts, Barbets, Ioras, Tits (M. aplonotus and Z. palpebrosa), 

 Thrushes and Blackbirds (G. cyanotis and M. nigropilea), 

 Blue Redbreasts, (Cyornis tickelli,) Green Pigeon, and 

 many another birds. Wherever you see on hill side or 

 valley a particularly thick patch of jungle, you may be 

 sure it is a devrdn or temple grove. Fortunately, they 

 are pretty common, especially in the inland tracts. With 

 the exception of about 2,000 acres of teak plantations near 

 Dapuli, and a few small reserves in the Malvan sub-division, 

 there are no forests worth the name throughout the Ratnagiri 

 district, though a considerable area of sheet rock, and almost 

 perpendicular trap scarp has, with a pleasant irony, been 

 declared by the Government to be forest reserve. In Savant 

 Vadi, however, as before explained, the jungles have been 

 very strictly preserved -, and, although there is little timber of 

 any value in them, the well-wooded hills and dales shew a 

 refreshing contrast to the generally denuded condition of 

 Ratnagiri. 



On the tops of some of the highest hills between Ghats 

 and sea, there are, here and there, patches of evergreen jun- 

 gle, where birds and plants, usually associated with the higher 

 ranges of the Ghats, are found ; but the earth-hunger, which 

 over population causes, leaves but a small part of these 

 hills to nature. On the steepest slopes up to the very scarp 



