SCLEROTIUM STIPITATUM. Berk. et Curr. The Puttu kai or Puttu manga of the Tamils, from Puttu, a, white ant-bill, and Manga, a mango, and Kai, fruit. Mail manga, Tam., from Mail, dry, like sticks, leaves, etc., and Manga, a mango. On the western coast, where it rains for at least six months in the year, this fungus is occasionally to be met with in dark crevices, and in the recesses of rocks and caves ; also in cld and deserted ant-hills, and frequently after the insects have become winged. They are found only in the peripheral and rnore superficial caverns, spring ing from their roof, occasionally from the floor, never from the cells occupied by the ants. Some grow with long stalks, others are sessile ; in those having stalks they can in a few be traced beneath the soil, while the sessile ones seem simply to lie over the soil. They attain the greatest perfection during, or inamediately after, the rains. They take on a variety of forms, being oval, oblong, pyriform, irregularly round, etc. The external rind is black and slightly wrinkled ; on cutting iuto it, the interior is found to be white and pithy, and is compared by the natives to the kernel of a tender cocoanut. It is tasteless and inodorous. The, Malayalam Vythians believe it to be manu factured by the insects themselves, by a kind of accretive process, and that snakes are very fond of it, and devour it greedily. Snake-charmers collect the Puttu manga, and take it round for sale, and they give out that they keep a supply always on hand with which to feed their snakes. The Vythians eag,erly seek it, and use it as a remedy iu cholera, syphilis, and a variety of other diseases. • In cholera it is prescribed as a specific., by rubbing it up with a little water and fresh ginger juice or country arrack ; and the dose is repeated after every motion or act of vomiting.— Dr. John Shortt.
SCOLOPACIDiE, a. family of birds of the order Grallatores or waders, comprising 16 genera and 33 species, as under :— 1 Ibidorhyncus, curlew. 1 Candris, sanderling.
4 Totanus, greenshank. 1 Philomachus, ruff.
3 Actitis, sandpiper. 1 Phalaropus, stint.
6 Tringa, stints, knot. 1 Scolopax, woodcock.
1 Terekia, sandpiper. 1 Macrohamplius, godwit.
2 Limosa, godwit. 6 Gallinago, snipes.
2 Numenius, curlew. 1 Ithynchma,painted snipe.
1 Eurinorhyncus, stint.
This family of birds is interesting to the Indian sportsman. The woodcock is everywhere very scarce on the plains of India. It is found on the Neilghenies, occasionally on the plains of the Peninsula, and has now and then been met with near Calcutta. Some incline to the opinion that woodcocks may not be so rare, being commonly overlooked in their jungle haunts. The birds called woodcock seen at the dinner-table are generally greentshauks (Totauus glottis), and occasionally the. black-tailed god wit (Limon tegoceplinia). Two distinct species in the Hima laya are connitonly confounded under the name 'solitary snipe,' and both are very different from the Gallinago major of Europe and Northern Asia, which haft not been observed in the East Indies. Of the other Indian kinds, one, Gallinago solitaria of Hodgson, is peculiar to the Himalaya, and to this species the designation 'solitary snipe ' should be restticted. It is readily known by its white belly and yellowish legs, wings longer, straighter, and more acuminated than in the other, and the upper plumage more minutely speckled, with the pale linear markings on the back narmwer, and the tail also longer. Average measurement, 12+ inches by 20 in expanse of wings; closed wing, 6i inehea ; and tail, 3 inches. 'Weight, 5 to 6 oz., or even more. The other, G. nemoricola of Hodgso», should be distinguished as the wood-snipe, and is more of a woodcock in appearance and habits, though keeping to the outskirts of the jungle. Though principally a tnalayan species, it is not rare in the Neilgherries, and it has been met with in various parta of the country, and in the Calcutta provision bazar. This species has blue legs, and the under parts are uniformly barred throughout ; the general colouring dark, and the markings bold ; the wings more bowed and rounded than in the other, and the tail shorter. It is only found, remarks Mr. Hodgson, in the haunts of the woodcock, with this difference in its manners, that it is averse to the interior of woods. Length, 12i inches by 18 in expanse of wings ; closed win„rr, 5i incites ; and tail, 2+ inches. Weight, 5+ to 6i oz. and upwards.