388 A LIST OF BIRDS COLLECTED AND 



like crystal mushrooms, just under the surface of the ground, 

 in a cold wet place beside the lake. 



One needs occupation when the clouds gather thick around 

 the tops of the hills and stay there all day. I preferred to 

 use such days for running down to lower levels with my gun 

 and collecting box. Even when ' the weather is fine, the 

 collector is generally off down the hill sides, because the variety 

 he seeks is greater there. The Palani Hills above 5,000 

 feet would be much improved were there more forast upon 

 them. The surface is covered with grass, and trees are few 

 and for between. Kodaikanal, the umbrella grove, or as some 

 prefer to pronounce and translate it, Kodikanal, the grove 

 of creepers, was a fine collection of large trees on a steep hill 

 side, three quarters by one quarter of a mile in extent. Many 

 of the old Cinnamon (C. iiiers), Olive {Eleocarpus oblongus) , 

 Jambul, {Syzigium) and other fine trees have been felled ; and a 

 thicket of underwood, in some places almost impenetrable, has 

 grown up through the whole grove. Additions have been made 

 by planting Bluegums, Wattle trees and other Acacias intro- 

 duced from Australia. The Acacias are now naturalized and 

 the older Bluegums produce fertile seed. One of three Blue- 

 gums in our yard, that were fourteen years old from the seed, 

 measured nine feet four inches in circumference, a yard above 

 the ground and appeared to diminish but little in girth for 

 twenty feet. There it branched into four parts, each a fine 

 tree. The others were nearly 9 feet in girth. One of the 

 Acacias (A. melanoxylon) rivals the Bluegums in the rapidity 

 of its growth and the straightness of its stem ; but its wood 

 is not as durable as that of another Wattle tree which usually 

 refuses to grow straight. It is easy to make a grove of 

 Wattle trees anywhere on these hills above six thousand feet, 

 and probably they will flourish much lower. The site for a 

 grove of Wattle trees should be one where they are to be allow- 

 ed to remain permanently. For it is most difficult to eradi- 

 cate some of them when once established. Every twig of the 

 roots of A. dealbata for instance will send up a shoot, and each 

 shoot will strive to become a tree. 



There are some fine natural- groves besides the Kodaikanal, 

 although most of the surface of the Upper Palanis is covered 

 with grass, with only here and there a few scattered Rhodo- 

 dendron trees (R. arboreum). 



Descending from Kodaikanal towards the east, at about 

 the 8th milestone, we reach what is now called the Neutral 

 Saddle. This is a low ridge dividing the waterflow, and 

 uniting Permal-malai, the monarch of the Palani Hills, which 

 rises to the north, with Palmalai which rises to the south of 



