3830 NOTES ON SOME BIRDS COLLECTED ON THE NILGHIRIS 
gherries, a range of hills separating Coorg from the Wynaad, 
and only about 20 miles in a direct line from Banasore (or more 
correctly perhaps Balasore), the peak where Jerdon procured his 
type. 
ee will be found in the paper that I have omitted birds which 
must occur. For instance, I have not entered any of the white 
Egrets. These I have omitted, because I was unable to identify 
the species with certainty. Idid not during this trip procure 
any specimens, but I saw white Egrets on several occasions ; the 
same with Dendrocygna. A Dendrocygna occurs on the Gundalu- 
pet lake, but not having procured specimens lately, I could not 
venture now, at this distance of time, (it is about 12 years 
since I was last duck-shooting there) to state whether it was 
D. major or D. javanica, though from what I can remember 
I think it was the former ; possibly both species occur. 
I had intended to have given a description of the country 
passed through, but this is, 1 think, hardly necessary, and will 
only tend to make the paper unnecessarily long. ‘There will 
be hardly any of my readers who do not know what the Nil- 
ghiris are like, undulating grassy hills, with the ravines between 
the hills filled with strips of evergreen forest, mostly small, 
called sholas. Sometimes, however, the forest does not confine 
itself to the ravine, but spreads over the hills on either side 
more or less, sometimes covering several hills, and thus forming 
an extensive forest. Most of the sholas have a stream running 
through them, and nearly all tail off ina marsh. Most of the 
forests are evergreen, the undergrowth consisting chiefly of 
Strobilanthes, and easy enough to get about in, but often the 
undergrowth consists of a thin bamboo, about the thickness of 
one’s finger. 
As one gets down the slopes, the evergreen forests give way 
to a great extent. to deciduous trees and large bamboos, 
especially one very thorny kind, and the jungle becomes thin. 
This is chiefly on the Seegore and Coonoor side of the hills. 
But on the Neddivuttum side, the ghat leading into the Wynaad, 
the evergreen forests continue much lower, being somewhat 
broken about Goodalore, but soon recommencing. 
The Wynaad of course is now, to a very great “extent, denuded 
of its forests, plantations of coffee and chinchona having taken 
their place, but large extents of forests are still existent, “chiefly 
on the ghats overlooking the low country towards Calicut. 
A bird’s-eye view of Wynaad would show it as a country 
of innumerable little hills, with marshy ground between the 
hills, the hills mostly cultivated with coffee, &c., many still 
covered with forest, and the marshy ground between mostly 
under rice cultivation. 
