386 OCCASIONAL NOTES FROM SIKHIM.— NO. I. 



have got bold euough to feed within a few yards of us. Jerdon 

 says he a found it at Darjeeling from the level of the lowest 

 valleys to about 3,000 feet only, generally frequenting- high trees, 

 and picking various insects off the flower, buds and leaves." 

 This account is a mistaken one, as is also his description of 

 the nest. It occurs up to 6,000 feet, generally frequenting the 

 the wild plantains and smaller trees, and picks insects* out 

 of the open flowers, as might be guessed from the length and 

 formation if its bill. "When the passion flowers are open, they 

 hunt them over several times a day, but plantain flowers are 

 their favorite hunting grounds, and deftly do they insert their 

 bills in one flower after the other, now and again pausing in 

 search to give tongue to their sharp " tirik/' " tirik."" It is 

 not a very abundant bird anywhere, but as it is of a solitary 

 disposition, and never moves from one place to another without 

 uttering its peculiar, and unmistakeable call, it is, perhaps, 

 oftener seen than many birds that are very much more nu- 

 merous. A pair are about our compound this September, 

 feeding a fully-fledged Cuckoo, (C. micropterus) quite strong 

 on the wing, but evidently too lazy to forage for himself so 

 long has he can get this foster-parents to feed him. It looks 

 absurd to see the little creatures feeding a great bird like this 

 Cuckoo. They appear to have hard work in keeping him 

 satisfied, but are evidently proud of their charge. My friend 

 Mandelli insists that we have two species of Arachnothera in the 

 district, and he is usually right in his assertions. 



A marked instance of how rapidly animals increase in num- 

 bers under extra favorable circumstances occurred in Sikhim in 

 1867-68 when one of the small hill bamboos, flowered and 

 seeded simultaneously all over Sikhim, as is its habit to do about 

 once in five and twenty years. The increase in the number 

 of rats, caused by the extra amount of food, was something 

 marvellous. The seeds yielded by the large masses of bam- 

 boos were more than sufficient food for them, and as long as 

 they lasted, the increase went on at an alarming pace. When 

 that food-supply ceased they descended in such legions on the 

 maize fields that on every cornstalk, almost, might have been 

 seen several rats. After the remnant of the corn crop had 

 been harvested, the legions of rats diminished as suddenly as 

 they had increased. So rapid, at these times, are both the 

 increase and decrease that the natives have the idea that they 

 come up the river beds from the plains to eat the bamboo 

 seed, and afterwards take their departure by the same route, 

 which is, of course, absurd. Birds, as they breed fewer times 

 in the year, cannot increase so rapidly as the rats did ; but 



* It is for the nectar rather than the insects that the spider-hunters chiefly yisit the 

 flowers. — Ed., S. F. 



