206 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXII. 



Confiscation, 5. {!) When any person is convicted of an offence punishable under 



this Act, the convicting Magistrate may direct that any bird or animal in 

 respect of which such offence has been committed, or the flesh or any 

 other part of such bird or animal, shall be confiscated. 



(2) Such confiscation may be in addition to the other punishment pro- 

 vided by section 4 for such offence. 



■Cognizance of 6. No Court inferior to that of a Presidency Magistrate or a Magistrate 

 offences. of tho second class shall try any offence against this Act. 



Power to grant 7. Where the Local Government is of opinion that, in the interests of 



exemption, scientific research, such a course is desirable, it may grant to any person a 



license, subject to such restrictions and conditions as it may impose, 



entitling the holder thereof to do any act which is by section 3 declared 



to be unlawful. 



Savings. 8- Nothing in this Act shall be deemed to apply to the capture or 



killing of a wild animal by any person in defence of himself or any other 

 person, or to the capture or killing of any wild bird or animal in bond fide 

 defence of property. 



Repeal. ^- '^^^ Wild Birds Protection Act, 1887, is hereby repealed. 



^^°^i^''' THE SCHEDULE. 



(i) Bustards, ducks, floricans, jungle fowl, partridges, peafowl, 

 , pheasants, pigeons, quail, sand-grouse, painted snipe, spur- 



fowl, woodcock, herons, egrets, rollers, and king-fishers, 

 (ii) Antelopes, asses, bison, buffaloes, deer, gazelles, goats, hares, 

 oxen, rhinoceroses and sheep. 



No. XXXII— ON THE LEAF- FALL OF THE INDIAN 

 WILLOW. (SALIX TETRASPERMA, Roxb.) 



Salix tetrasperma is a much branched tree about 30 feet high with narrow 

 acute leaves which are silky on the underside with silvery hairs. The tree 

 occurs in this Presidency along the rivers. Several specimens of it can be 

 seen at the Sangam river in Poona from the Wellesley Bridge. 



During the rains, when every other tree on this side is clothed with green 

 leaves, this tree presents its bare twiggy frame-work to passers-by. 



Another point to be noticed in connection with leaf-fall is the way it 

 takes place. In most trees the top or crown is first to lose the cover, the 

 tree appearing stag-headed for such time as the leaf-fall takes to extend 

 to the lower branches. With this tree it is just the reverse. The leaf-fall 

 begins with the lower branches and gradually works upwards. The first 

 appearance of new leaves in all cases begins with the crown. 



With our present stock of knowledge on Field-biology, or Ecology as it 

 is termed, it is difiicult to give a definite explanation. However the follow- 

 ing conditions under which the plant ordinarily occurs may have a bearing 

 on the facts observed. The natural habitat is brinks of rivers. It is 

 subject to innundations during the rains. The submersion of roots under 

 several feet of water for several days together consequently takes place. 

 This may have an inhibitive action on the activities of the roots. If the 

 transpiration current is thus interfered with either leaf-fall should occur, 

 unless the leaves have any mechanism to stop evaporation to any consider- 

 able extent, or the tree should wither up. The roots of this tree are of the 

 aquatic type as they form a tangle of filiform growth. Similar masses of 

 roots have been observed by me in Ipomoea aquatica, aquatic grasses, the 

 water-chesnut and other similar plants. 



The accompanying photogragh was taken on the 14th October 1912 by 



