MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 159 



at the contents, it is entirely wrong as regards our bird in Sikhim. Our Sikhim 

 birds are never found at a lower elevation than 9,500 ft. high, whereas the wild 

 walnut is only found between 6 and 8,000 ft.; probably the walnuts in Kulu grow 

 at a higher elevation and have a much thinner shell than those got in Sikhim. 

 The shell of the walnut in Sikhim is intensely hard and takes a strong blow with 

 a heavy hammer to break one and what is there in it after breaking — just 

 a thin streak of hard woody flesh. No nutcracker or woodpecker could 

 ever bore into one of these wild walnuts ; if they attempted to do so their 

 bills would probably break long before any impression was made. I have 

 seen nutcrackers tearing the moss off a rhododendron shrub to get at the 

 insects and larva? which congregate underneath. I have also seen them 

 on the high ranges in September feeding on a sort of red raspberry which 

 ripens there." I suggest the following : — If these holes are not made by a 

 rodent, which is most probable, as suggested by Mr. Osmaston they might 

 perhaps be formed by a grub which had got into the walnut before the shell 

 hardened and which had either worked its way through or else eaten the inner 

 coating of the shell and thus made it thinner. As nutcrackers sometimes and 

 woodpeckers always feed on insects, they might probably be noticed probing 

 these holes or breaking the thin shells in search of the larva? which they 

 contained. I spoke to some forest officers about this and they thought it 

 quite possible. 



CHAS. M. INGLIS. 

 DarJEELING, 22nd July 1904. 



No. X — THE BLACK STORK ? {CICONIA NIGRA ?) 

 On the 29th November 1903, we observed a flock of some 30 birds, un- 

 doubtedly storks, fishing in the shallows off a sand bank. They were very 

 wary, and unfortunately, owing to a number of boats and people being about at 

 the far end of the sand bank, it would have been unsafe to use a high velocity 

 rifle, and they would not permit any one to get close enough to use a scatter 

 gun. 



Owing to their fishing and playing about, and while some slept and others 

 sunned themselves, we were able by the aid of a very good telescope and 

 binoculars to make out a good deal about them. The notes I made on a slip of 

 paper are as follows : — 



Body, dark blackish glossed with bronze. Upper breast bronze green, lower 

 breast, abdomen, flanks, and under tail, white. Beak, legs and around eyes, 

 crimson. From this it occurred to me that they could hardly be any other 

 than a flock of black storks (Ciconia nigra). They were the only ones 

 seen on the trip down from Myitkyina and I have never met with these 

 birds on any previous trip or for the matter of that anywhere else in the 

 province. 



G. H. EVANS, F.L.S., Major. 

 Rangoon, Wth July 1904. 



