Miscellaneous notes. 517 



It struck me then that a rodent of some sort had had something to do with 

 it, so I determined on finding out the truth. 



Very early next morning I placed half a dozen whole walnuts in a con- 

 spicuous spot under the tree and watched, but nothing happened that day. nor 

 the next. I removed the walnuts during the night and put them back in the 

 morning. On the third morning I was rewarded by seeing two Nutcrackers arrive 

 on the scene and after hopping about on the lower branches, one went down 

 to my walnuts, while I watched very carefully. It turned over each nut and 

 then hopped away. The other one then also came and had a look and behaved 

 similarly, neither attempting to break the nuts. 



That evening I left the nuts under the tree and came back in the morning to 

 find two of them, with quite large holes in each and one only slightly bored. 

 They all struck me as having the marks of a rodent's teeth and that together 

 with the fact, that it had been done at night, seemed to me conclusive proof, that 

 a rat or more likely a flying squirrel was the culprit. In each case the kernel 

 had been only partially extracted and a good deal still remained. I again left 

 the nuts there and returned to look at them later on and found 2 of them gone 

 and the remaining cracked one considerably more chipped than when I last saw 

 it and every vestige of the inside removed. 



In my own mind I have not a doubt that the flying squirrel starts the boring 

 and once the shell has been chipped I dare say both Nutcrackers and Wood- 

 peckers are capable of enlarging the opening. 



Any one who has tried keeping a flying squirrel (Pleromys inornatus) as a 

 pet and they make delightful ones, must know the strength of that little jaw 

 and the sharp, hard edges of those little red teeth. 



C H. DONALD. 



Bhadarwa, Kashmir, %tft June, 1905 



No. XXIV.— EAGLES AS BAROMETERS. 



One frquently hears how one can predict bad weather by watching a flock 

 of sheep or kites and vultures, but it has never been brought home to me as it 

 has been in the last month. IVly camp is situated at an elevation of about 7,( ( 

 feet in a big deodar forest and I had on several occasions teen a pair of spotted 

 Hawk-Eagles {Spizostus nepalengis) in the nullah, about a miJe or more above my 

 camp and about, 1,500 feet above it, but they never seem to come down any 

 lower. One evening I was rather surprised to hear the shrill whistle of one 

 quite near and soon spotted one sitting on a date tree and just before sunset he 

 was joined by his better-half. They sat there screaming for a few minutes and 

 then one flew down, in among a lot of smaller trees with thick foliage and the 

 other one shortly after followed, but went in lower down. Next morning we 

 had a most terrific storm which lasted with a couple of short breaks for 5 days 

 (from 14th to 19th May ) and all this time, the eagles remained near at hand 

 and could be heard and seen at intervals throughout the day. The 19th dawn- 

 ed cloudy and threatening and I thought we were in for still more rain, but 



