98 TlIK HIGHLANDS OF CENTRAL INDIA. 



by animals, save a few melancholy bears, and its steep 

 precipices, and long slopes of gray and naked rock, 

 interspersed with scanty moor-like vegetation, are 

 singularly suggestive of a comparison with the well- 

 known valley of Glencoe. 



These deep and gloomy dells that seam the Puch- 

 murree block are the home of a splendid squirrel [Sciurus 

 maximus), measuring two and a half to three feet in 

 length, and of a rich, deep claret colour, with a blue 

 metallic lustre on the upper parts of the body, the lower 

 parts being rufous yellow. They dwell in the upper 

 branches of the wild mango trees, making nests of the 

 leaves, generally iu the very top. They live chiefly on 

 the mango fruit, lavishly squandering the supply while 

 the fresh mangoes are attainable, and afterw^irds crack- 

 ing the discarded stones for their kernels. They seem 

 to be of a retired and melancholy nature, appropriate to 

 the sunless ravines they reside in ; and they are not 

 very numerous either here or at Amarkantak, which is 

 the only other part of the hills where I have met the 

 species. They are easily captured in the nests when 

 young, but make most foolish and uninteresting pets, 

 having a singularly vacant expression of countenance, 

 and nothing of the light-hearted vivacity of the other 

 members of the squirrel family. If an exquisite fur for 

 a lady's mufi' or a sporran is an object, some pretty 

 shooting may be had in knocking them off the tops 

 of the high trees with a small rifle. Numerous vultures 

 and birds of the rapacious order build on the ledges of 

 the clifis. Among them is the grand imperial eagle {A. 

 imperialis), whose wings measure eight feet from tij) 

 to tip, and whose soaring flight and harsh scream forms a 

 errand feature in the scenery of this range of mountains. 



