MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 147 



Their usual routine was to commence to move about on the ceilings 

 about an hour and a half before dark and to come out when it was just too 

 dark to see anything, but the Jump from the roof to the branch of a deodar 

 about 4 feet away. They would then run up the tree for 10 or 15 feet and 

 isit down either to " wash their faces " like a rat or rabbit or to wait for 

 another of the party to join them. 



They then dispersed for the night to feed and about 4 a.m., a thud on 

 the roof would proclaim the return of the first of them. This would be 

 followed by some scurrying about. Thinking that there might be a nest of 

 young ones, I spent some four days in the roof hiinting for them — I was, 

 however, never able to find an animal, though in the evening they would 

 appear again. Eventually I found some nests in the partition where they 

 evidently lived and probably hibernate. 



I tried to snare them but always failed, as they bit through the thin wire 

 immediately they found they were caught, and in the end I had to shoot 

 them as they left the building. They evidently do not always return to 

 the same place, as some nights only two, and other nights four left the 

 bungalow. This may have been due to their being so much disturbed. In 

 1912 1 shot four in the Konani bungalow but no more could be got out of it, 

 and as they were all males I began to wonder if the sexes separated except 

 during the pairing season. 



I then went to Kothi Kanesar bungalow. Here they made more noise 

 than ever and evidently one old male tried to hunt the others out. This 

 l)ungalow is one that is not so often occupied and in consequence the 

 squirrels seemed to come out much earlier in the evening. Here, after amus- 

 ing themselves chasing each other on the bare stone wall, they usually got 

 on to the roof and planed to the nearest deodar about 20 yards away — one, 

 however, made straight down the khud side to a tree quite 200 feet below. 

 In this bungalow I got more specimens but they were again all males. 



In June 1913 I was again at Konani and there were again four more 

 tenants of the bungalow using the only entrance which I had left the year 

 l)efore. I shot two more, one being a male and the other a large female. 



In the roof were large numbers of apricot stones and a few walnut stones 

 each with a single hole bitten out. They were probably brought here by 

 the squirrels though they might have been brought by rats. I have seen 

 twenty or thirty mango stones below the hole in a tree from which I got 

 a Petaurista iJiornatus. This tree was an oak and the nearest mango was 

 not within a mile and a half, so it is probable that the apricots and walnuts 

 had been brought from the village a mile away. The specimens were all 

 shot in the evening so that the stomachs were empty except for lumps of 

 gum or resin. 



The usual food of this species is the seed of the various conifers and these 

 animals must to a great extent prevent the regeneration of forests. I have 

 seen the ground in Kashmir strewn with thousands of green cones destroyed 

 by flying squirrels and in places in these hills you may see much of the same 

 thing. They also eat the pines of the conifers and lumps of gum and resin 

 and various fruits. 



The only female I obtained showed no signs of being in young nor of 

 having just finished suckling. 



The colour of the specimens varies from ruf escent to dark grey, about half 

 of one colour and half of the other. The red specimens appear to be older 

 animals. •• 



The squirrels were smothered with a large red flea (I send you some 

 specimens) which were not averse to a human diet. 



H. T. FULTON, Major. 

 Dhera Dun, March 1914. 



