ROUGH LIST OF THE BIRDS OF WESTERN KUANDESH. 281 
homesteads, and not as most cultivators do in villages. The 
Akrani is a high tableland, being from 1,600 to 2,500 feet 
above the sea, and gradually sloping down to the Nerbudda, 
there a very rapid stream rushing through adeep gorge in 
the hills. The highest point in the Akrani is Toran-mal hill, 
about 4,000 feet high, a charming place when you can manage 
to get at it, with a very old artificial lake over a mile in cir- 
cumference. The heavy rainfall throughout the Satpuras causes 
the grass to grow excessively long, and it is almost imprac- 
ticable to traverse them till February or March, when 
the grass gets burnt. By that time the Bheels, who find that 
the long grass interferes with their gathering honey, roots, &c., 
in spite of piles of legislation manufactured at Simla and 
Mahableshwar decreeing the most terrible penalties for lighting 
a fire within miles of a forest, manage to have every yard of 
grass burnt every year. The hills contain a number of Mhowa 
trees (Bassia latifolia.) which in the season furnish the 
staple food of the Bheels as well as of many of the wild 
animals and birds. 
The central belt of Khandesh consists, as a rule, of deep 
black soil, producing capital crops of wheat, cotton, gram, and 
the various millets, the latter being the staple food of the poorer 
classes everywhere. In all the central and eastern talukas the 
whole plain is practically under cultivation, but in the north 
of Shada and in West Nandurbar and Taloda, as well as in the 
black soil portion of Pimpalnir below the ghats (Nowapur), 
a great deal of land is still covered with jungle. In Shada 
this is very poor, and consists mainly of stumpy Khair 
trees. In Taloda and Nandurbar however the “ Palas” or 
“ Dhak” (Butea frondosa) is the principal tree, and the jungles 
there are lovely in the beginning of the hot weather, when the 
“ Palas” is in flower. There is some very fine “ Khair’ mixed 
with the “‘ Palas” in the Nowapur country below the ghats. 
Except along the Tapti river there are, as a rute, mango and 
tamarind groves round most of the villages, and in many places 
there are gardens, some of them extensive, affording cover for 
small birds. Most of the sides of the roads in Khandesh have 
been planted, and some of the avenues, though almost entirely 
composed of ‘ Neem” trees (Azadirachta indica) are exceedingly 
fine, and give the country a very green, wooded look. 
T'o the extreme east of the district, there are the Halti hills 
on the further side of the river Purna, adjoining extensive 
reserve forests in Nimar. These are mainly skirted by dense 
Ae jungle, and the best shooting in the district is to be got 
there. 
The southern belt of the country consists of the Satmulla or: 
Ajunta hills, with numerous spurs stretching out from them. 
