MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 713 



I saw in the Society's Journal, Volume 14, No. 4, published on the 10th 

 February 1903, page 819, a notice of the Nucifraga hemispila by Mr. Osmaston, 

 your Darjeeling correspondent, who criticised my former note in the following 

 words : — 



" With reference to a note by General Osborn on the Himalayan nutcracker 

 {Nucifraga hemispila) which appeared on page 628 of Vol. 14 of the Society's 

 Journal, I should like to make a few remarks. 



It is stated in the above that the nutcracker perforates the shell of the wild 

 walnut, and feeds upon the contents. This, I maintain, is a mistake. 



The wild walnut of the Himalayas has an intensely hard shell which it would 

 be quite impossible for any bird to perforate. Even the black bear finds it too 

 tough a nut for his powerful jaws to crack, though he feeds largely on the 

 cultivated variety with a thinner shell. The only animal, as far as I know, which 

 can circumvent the excessively thick and hard shell of the wild walnut is a 

 species of rat (probably Mus mveiventer). When stationed for some years in 

 the North-West Himalayas (Chakrata), I constantly came across wild walnuts, 

 with the round holes, described by General Osborn, bored in a systematic manner 

 on either side of the nut ; but the holes showed evident marks of the teeth of a 

 small rodent, and though I never actually saw the rat at work, I think there 

 can be little doubt but that he is the culprit." 



Upon reading the above note by Mr. Osmaston, I thought it advisable to 

 make still further enquiries as to the walnut-aating habit of the nutcracker, and 

 to this end I asked my friend Mr. J. C. Carroll, Deputy Conservator of Forests 

 in the Kullu Range, to make enquiries forme on quite a different mountain range 

 in Kuilu to the one I have mentioned, as to what bird or rodent is in the habit 

 of thus perforating the wild walnuts. I may mention that Mr. Carroll is himself 

 a good naturalist and ornithologist. 



On returning from his forest tour, he brought me the information that, after 

 careful enquiries, he found that the bird which bores into the walnuts is, without 

 doubt, the Himalayan nutcracker. He further gave me a very interesting note, 

 which I insert below, regarding the walnut-eating habit of the lesser spotted 

 woodpecker {Dendrocopus minor), a much smaller bird than the nutcracker. 



Mr. Carroll's Note. 



" Your account of the perforation of walnuts by the Nucifraga hemispila is 

 very interesting, and, as I told you, has reminded me of a similar habit which 

 I have seen practised by the lesser spotted woodpecker. 



I spent the summer in 1901 and 1902 at ' Kalatop, ' the forest bungalow 

 near Dalhousie, and was surprised to learn from the gardener that the fruit on 

 a walnut tree near the bungalow never came to anything. He could give me 

 no reason for this. 



Later on in the summer, just as the walnuts were ripening, I was constantly 

 hearing the tapping of a woodpecker, and on tracing the sound found that it 

 came from the walnut tree referred to. I disturbed the bird, and found that it 

 was a lesser spotted woodpecker. On hearing the tapping again, I went quietly 



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