Physical Geography of Hindostan. 337 



The regions to the leeward of the mountain walls, against 

 which the clouds borne up from the sea first dash and dis- 

 charge themselves, are comparatively dry, and the sudden- 

 ness with which the transition takes place is often most re- 

 markable. At Paunchghunny, 500 feet lower down, and ten 

 miles farther east than Mahabaleshwar, where from 250 to 300 

 inches fall, they have seldom more than 20 inches, while the 

 average of the table-land of the Deccan scarcely exceeds 25. 

 When the rain clouds approach the arid plains of Seinde and 

 Outch, they appear to ascend and become absorbed by the 

 air, passing on to precipitate themselves on the mountains to 

 the northward. There is much reason to believe that the 

 fall of rain is diminished by the absence or destruction of 

 trees. Were vegetation sufficiently fostered in Seinde by 

 means of irrigation, it might cause it to have its regular 

 rainy season like the lands around. 



Two events strike with surprise the ornithologist on the ap- 

 proach of the monsoon. Nearly all the kites, hawks, vultures, 

 and carrion birds disappear from the sea-coast, while the crows 

 begin to build their nests and hatch their young just at the sea- 

 son that seems most unsuitable for incubation, when the eggs 

 are often shaken out, or the nests themselves are destroyed by 

 the storm, and the poor birds are exposed in the performance 

 of their paternal duties to all the violence and inclemency of 

 rain and tempest. At the instigation of a sure and unerring 

 instinct, the carnivorous birds, as the rains approach, with- 

 draw themselves from a climate unsuitable to the habits of 

 their young, betaking themselves to the comparatively dry 

 air of the Deccan, where they nestle and bring forth in com- 

 fort, and find food and shelter for their little ones. The 

 earth, once saturated with rain in the low country, abounds 

 in grubs, snails, and worms, the food of the young crows, 

 which the parents pick up in the soft and moistened soil, the 

 rising generation coming forth just as the means of supply- 

 ing them with suitable sustenance become plentiful. The 

 scenes connected with this, which follow the conclusion of 

 the rains, are curious enough. While the Mahommedans bury, 

 and the Hindus burn, the Parsees expose their dead in large 

 cylindrical roofless structures called Towers of Silence, 



