MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 



No. I.— MONKEYS {MACACUS RHESUS) SWIMMING.. 



In parts of the Banda district long narrow stagnant i^ools, whose steep 

 sides are fringed with bushes and small trees, occur commonly in the other- 

 wise dry riverbeds. These pools are beloved of the red monkeys. Once in 

 the course of a stroll I and another, aided by a dog, cut off the retreat of a 

 troup of these monkeys and pinned them to the bank of one of these pools. 

 Unable for fear of the dog to make their way through the bushes on the bank 

 they retreated into such trees as there were. Wishing to see how they 

 would attempt to extricate themselves from their dilemma we began pelting 

 them with pebbles. They decided that this was more than they could stand, 

 and one after the other jumped into the water and swam to the far side, 

 where they sat in the sun to dry and relieved their feelings by explaining 

 what they thought of us. The interesting thing vi^as the height from which 

 most of them jumped into the water. Either with the idea of avoiding us 

 or of getting as far across the pool as possible each monkey climbed out as 

 far as he could before he jumped. This meant that several had to jump a 

 good fifteen feet into the water. The bushes made so thick a screen that 

 it was difficult to get a clear view of the monkeys as they jumped. So far 

 as I could see, they reached the water neither upright, as when dropping to 

 the ground from the end of a branch, nor on all fours. Their bodies seemed 

 to make an angle of about sixty degrees with the surface of the water which 

 their hind legs struck first. The force of the fall carried them well below 

 the surface but they soon reappeared and swam strongly dog fashion to the 

 other side. I was unable to see whether they jumped from the branches or 

 let themselves drop. " Muggers " are common in these pools but they get 

 such a plentiful diet of corpses that they never seem to bother much about 

 living beings. 



Mayo College, Ajmek, G. B. F. MUIR, i.c.s. 



15th September 1915. 



No. II.— NOTES ON THE HABITS OF THE HARLEQUIN BAT 

 {SCOTOMANES ORNATUS). 



A common bat here, Kurseong 4,750 elevation, appears shortly after sun- 

 down. Flight slow and direct but not very heavy, flies generally about 20 

 to 30 feet off the ground but often when in search of insects under trees 

 comes very low. Have killed three with a badminton bat lashed to a light 

 bamboo 6 feet long. Have never yet had one come into the bungalow 

 though H. hai'pegia often does. 



Food. 



Stomachs examined contained a fine pulp of various insects, chiefly gnats 

 and small moths with a sprinkling of beetle elytra, some of a bright green 

 beetle, but I do not think any but small beetles are eaten. As the biggest 

 bit of elytra is about the size of a pin's head it is very diflicult to say what 

 size the beetle might have been before it met the bat. When an insect has 

 been swooped down on and caught, the bat flies on slowly with the muzzle 

 pointed earthwards and if within 20 feet of one, one can distinctly hear it 

 eating, the sound I would hardly call crunching but it is exactly like cut- 

 ting through raw meat with a pair of small scissors. When wounded, 

 alarmed, chasing or being chased by one of its own species, this species 

 Titters a shrill grating squeak, repeated once or twice, or not, according to 

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