M A H M A H 285 ornithologists, who have recognized it as forming a dis tinct genus, but the number of species thereto belonging has been a fruitful source of discussion. Examples from the south of Spain differ slightly from those inhabiting the rest of Europe, and in some points more resemble the P. mauritanica of north-western Africa ; but that species has a patch of bare skin of a fine blue colour behind the eye, and much shorter wings. No fewer than five species have been discriminated from various parts of Asia, extend ing to Japan ; but only one of them, the P. leucoptera of Turkestan and Tibet, has of late been admitted as valid. In the west of North America, and in some of its islands, a Pie is found which extends to the upper valleys of the Missouri and the Yellowstone, and has long been thought entitled to specific distinction as P. hudsonia ; but its claim thereto is now disallowed by some of the best ornithologists of the United States, and it can hardly be deemed even a geographical variety of the Old- World form. In California, however, there is a permanent race if not a good species, P. nuttalli, easily distinguishable by its yellow bill and the bare yellow skin round its eyes ; and it is a curious fact that on two occasions in the year 1867 a bird apparently similar was observed in Great Britain (Zoologist, ser. 2, pp. 706,1016). (A. N.) MAHABALESHWAR, a hill station in Satara district, and the principal sanatarium in the Bombay presidency, India (17 58 N. lat., 73 42 E. long.), occupies the sum mit of a range of the Western Ghats, with a general eleva tion of 4500 feet above sea-level. It was established by Sir John Malcolm, the governor in Bombay in 1828, who obtained the site from the raja of Satara in exchange for another patch of territory. The superior elevation of Mahabaleshwar renders it much cooler than Matheran (2460 feet), but its heavy rainfall (about 240 inches) makes it almost uninhabitable during the rainy season. It forms the retreat usually during spring, and occasionally in autumn, of the governor of Bombay, the commander-in-chief of the Bombay army, and the chief officers of their establish ments, and has the usual public buildings of a first-class sanatarium. The population was returned in 1872 at 2759. MAHABHARATA. See SANSKRIT LITERATURE. MAHANADI, or MAHANUDDY ("The Great River"), a river of India, rising in 20 10 N. lat., 82 _E. long., 25 miles south of Raipur town, in a wild mountainous region of the Central Provinces. At first an insignificant stream, it flows in a tortuous easterly course through the hills in a rocky bed until it reaches Dholpur in Orissa. From this point it rolls its unrestrained waters straight for the outermost line of the Eastern Ghats. This mountain line it pierces by a gorge about 40 miles in length, over looked by hills, shaded by forests, deep and tranquil, and navigable at all seasons. It pours down upon the Orissa delta at Naraj, about 7 miles west of.Cuttack town; and after traversing Cuttack district from west to east, and throwing off numerous branches (the Katjuri, Paika, Birupa, Chitartala, &c.), it falls into the Bay of Bengal at False Point by several channels. The Mahanadi has an estimated basin of 43,800 miles, and its rapid flow renders its maximum discharge in time of flood second to that of no other river in India. During unusually high floods 1,800,000 cubic feet of water pour every second through the Naraj gorge, one-half of which, uncontrolled by the elaborate embank ments, pours over the delta, filling the swamps, inundating tho rice-fields, and converting the plains into a boundless sea. In the dry weather the discharge of the Mahanadi dwindles to 1125 feet per second. Efforts have been made to husband and utilize the vast water supply thrown ivpon the Orissa delta during seasons of flood. Each of the three branches into which the parent stream splits at the delta head is regulated by a weir. Of the four canals which form the Orissa irrigation system, two take off from the Birupa weir, and one, with its branch, from the Mahanadi weir. On the 31st Decem ber 1868 the Government took over the whole canal works from the East Indian Irrigation Company, at a cost of 941,368, since which time the gradual prosecution of the Orissa scheme to com pletion has been sanctioned. The canals thus taken over and since completed, or carried to an advanced stage of construction, are the High- Level Canal, the Kendrapara Canal, the Tuldanda Canal, and the Machhgaon Canal, with their distributaries, designed to irrigate a total of 1,600,000 acres. MAHANOY CITY, a post borough of the United States, in Mahanoy township, Schuylkill county, Pennsyl vania, lies at a height of 1211 feet above the sea, 56 miles north-east of Harrisburg, with a station both on the Lehigh Valley and on the Philadelphia and Reading Railway. It was founded in 1859, and owes its existence to the great anthracite mines in the neighbourhood. Two public halls, a public library, two weekly newspapers, and the increase of its population from 5533 in 1870 to 7181 in 1880, betoken its prosperity. MAHASEER, or MAHSEEE (Barbus mosal), a kind of barbel, abundant in the rivers of India, especially in pools of the upper and more rapid streams where they issue from the mountainous part of the country. It is one of the largest species of the family of carps, attaining to a length of from 3 to 5 feet, and exceeding sometimes a weight of 70 K). Its body is well-proportioned, rather elongate, and somewhat like that of the European barbel, but covered with very large scales, of which there are only twenty-five or twenty-seven placed along the lateral line ; the dorsal fin is armed with a long and strong spine, and the mouth provided with four slender and short barbels. The lips are sometimes produced into fleshy lobes. To the fisher man in India the mahaseer affords the same kind of sport as the salmon in the British Isles, and it rivals that fish as regards size, strength, and activity. Its flesh is likewise much esteemed. . MAHDl. i.e., " he who is guided aright," the third caliph of the house of "Abbas (see MOHAMMEDAN EMPIRE). The name of Mahdi is also that which the Shi ite Mohammedans give to their Messiah, the last of the Imams of the house of Ali. It was under the name of al-Mahdi that Mokhtar proclaimed Ali s son Mohammed as the opponent of the caliph Abd al-Malik, and, according to Shahrastani, p. Ill, the doctrine of the Mahdi, the hidden deliverer who is one day to appear and fill the oppressed world with righteous ness, first arose in connexion with a wild notion that this Mohammed had not died but lived concealed at Mount Radwa, near Mecca, guarded by a lion and a panther. The hidden Imam of the common Shi ites is, however, the twelfth Imam, Mohammed Abu l-Kasim, who disappeared mysteri ously 879 A.D. The belief in the appearance of the Mahdi readily lent itself to imposture. Of the many pretendants to this dignity known in all periods of Moslem history down to the present day 1 the most famous was the first caliph of the Fatimite dynasty in North Africa, Obaid-allah al-Mahdi, who reigned 909-934 A.D. From him was named the capital of the dynasty, the once mighty city of Mahdiya, the port and entrepot of Kairawan (see MOHAMMEDAN EMPIRE under the reign of Moktadir). Another great historical movement, headed by a leader who proclaimed himself the Mahdi (Mohammed ibn Abdallah ibn Tumrut), was that of the ALMO HADES (q.v.). MAHE, a French settlement and town, in the Malabar district, Madras, India, is situated in 11 41 50" N. lat. and 75 34 25" E. long., to the south of the river Mahe", with an area of 1445 acres. It is the only French possession on the west coast of India, and is in charge of a chef-de-service, subordinate to the governor-general at Pondicherri. It is now a decaying place, with most of its chief buildings 1 Thus there are at the present date (1882) three actual pretendants to the dignity of Mahdi, Sheikh Mohammed of Dongola in t Egyptian Sudan, the Sheikh El-Semisi in Tripoli, and a third n
vilayet of Aidin.