HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



.NATURAL HISTORY NOTES FROM 

 SIMLA. 



THIS is perhaps one of the best known and most 

 often described of Indian stations. There is 

 something home-like in the neatly kept lawns, and in 

 the trim garden hedges which add a charm to the 

 natural attractions of the place. Nature here has been 

 lavish in her bounty, and botanist, entomologist, and 

 two or three other ologists might find much to interest 

 and much to repay research and labour in their 

 various pursuits. Take, for instance, the entomologist. 

 Ere these heavy rains began, the air was alive with 

 lovely Lepidoptera flashing their prismatic colours 

 in the unclouded glory of the summer sun. The 

 season had been one of unusually prolonged heat, and 

 Papilios, which usually frequent the low valleys and 

 Rhuds, came into the gardens, and might be found 

 near every newly-watered plant. As to beetles, any 

 one interested in them could make a most valuable 

 collection up here. There are some very curious 

 ones. Besides the common kind, whose busy wings 

 whirr an unceasing concert during the rainy season, 

 there is one kind which I had never heard until the 

 beginning of this summer. Its approach was made 

 known by a most musical sound, as if some one had 

 struck a stringed instrument. The noise was not 

 particularly loud, but so intense and clear that it 

 could be heard at a great distance. We have often 

 tried to follow the creature, but in vain. It was a 

 musical ignis fatuus, and whenever we got to where 

 the noise was last heard, off it went far out of reach, 

 so we never saw it. I think it always chose fir-trees 

 as its favourite haunts, and as our house and garden 

 are set as it were in a frame of dark deodar pines, it 

 had plenty of choice among them. After a few 

 days it seemed to vanish, and I have never heard 

 it since. 



There are the rose beetles, which are a very large and 

 destructive class. What ravages they work and how 

 pretty they are, glinting in the sunshine like burnished 

 copper. Then the ornithologist (we have rather a 

 distinguished one up here, by the bye) has a wide 

 range before him — the mighty lammergau sweeping 

 in its majestic flight across the mountain's barren 

 side and swooping down into the valley, where in 

 luxuriant pastures it finds a plenteous supply of 

 dainty food among the herds and flocks. They are, 

 indeed, magnificent birds, but they are worse enemies 

 to the farmyard and poultry house than even the 

 dreaded jackal. 



Of smaller birds there are the pert little mina ; 

 sparrows, thrushes, robins, cuckoos, have all their 

 representatives ; while as to crows, they are the 

 most impertinent of birds. The martins build their 

 mud-walled nests in the verandah eaves, the fly- 

 catcher darts from his favourite perch, and the 

 wagtail waddles across the lawn ; and you might 

 fancy yourself in England, till a gaily decked hoopoo 



struts proudly into view. Deeper in the woods one 

 finds nut-hatches, jays, doves that coo with a very 

 familiar tone, kingfishers, and well-known little 

 tits. Talking of things that fly, though they are not 

 birds, I may mention the flying squirrel. It is very 

 plentiful in some localities, but it is such a recluse 

 that it is seldom noticed. But take a seat just after 

 sunset underneath the deodar, and watch in the gather- 

 ing twilight for a dark shadow. There it is, from 

 the roof of the house it has dropped to a tree some 

 forty yards off, and there it sits quite unconscious of 

 your presence, or, at all events, quite unconcerned, 

 nibbling at the bark or cracking a nut ; you may go 

 close up to it and shoot it, and the only difficulty will 

 be to get far enough, so as to be able to see it and 

 yet not blow it to pieces. Unless shot dead, they 

 cling to the tree, and never drop, however badly 

 wounded ; this is lucky, as they are spirited little 

 animals, and if caught and trapped alive, bite and 

 fight for dear life with curious pertinacity. 



They are very destructive in the garden, no fruit 

 comes amiss to them, and they are said to nibble the 

 tops of fir-trees and eat the young shoots. Among 

 themselves they are very quarrelsome, and it is diffi- 

 cult to find an unmaimed one. An ear, or a leg, or 

 an eye, will probably be missing. They have taken 

 up their abode in our roof, and hardly a night passes 

 without a terrible fight, when they squeal and scamper 

 about in a most disturbing fashion. Their skins in 

 winter time are exceedingly pretty, and make very 

 charming rugs or mats, but the beasts look so happy 

 darting about or nestling to the sides of the fir-trees, 

 that, destructive as they are, one would feel sorry to 

 shoot them. 



The creatures which are most curious to watch 

 are the monkeys, and of course sheets upon sheets 

 might be written about these caricatures of humanity. 

 The likeness is the most striking, because, among 

 their native forests they may be seen side by side with 

 human beings so low in the scale of civilisation that 

 many of the habits of the man and of the monkey are 

 nearly similar. In the winter they grow very bold, 

 and are fierce and troublesome. They will snatch 

 the bread out of a man's hand as he sits munching 

 his chupatee, while in the fowl-yard they will devour 

 all the grain which is thrown to the fowls. It appears 

 that the fiercest of the tribes which frequent our 

 woods always belong to one family, and there is 

 always a representative descendant who pesters the 

 servants at meal-times. To shoot a monkey is sacrilege 

 to a native's mind, and few people after they have 

 once killed one would willingly shoot one, for to see 

 a monkey die, is, it is said, one of the most painful 

 sights that can be imagined. 



As to wild beasts, in the sense of beasts of prey, 

 we have but few kinds, and these I shall leave to 

 describe another time, as the mail is just going out, 

 and there is not time for more to-day. 



Ben. 



