KOETH INDIA WOOD 31 5 



jerking it up and down as high as I could reach. A Langour, upcountry, once 

 took up a terrior and tore it in two, and another ran off with a native baby. 

 When the crowd pursued him, he rapped the child's head on the ground and 

 killed it, so vicious are they. I hoped these monkeys would disappear when 

 there were no more mangoes to steal, but now they come for the guavas. So 

 we are obliged to gather them before they are ripe. 



To this tale should be added that in India the monkey is a sacred 

 animal which seriously to injure or to kill is an offense against law 

 and religion. 



I saw a number of bats, but nothing out of the ordinary except per- 

 haps the interesting fruit bats, of which I shall speak later. Bears 

 are quite common, as are wildcats and wild dogs, while in the lower 

 valleys leopards and tigers are permanent residents. The mon- 

 goose and the civet cat (and other smaller Felidae) are quite com- 

 monly seen, but there are no forest wolves nor foxes. Aelurus, a 

 peculiar animal called the " cat bear," closely resembling our Ameri- 

 can racoon, is found here, as well as an aberrant badger and the 

 familiar flying squirrel. The elephant is now found only in the 

 outer north Indian forests as far as the Jumna, and the rhinoceros 

 as far as the Sarda — receding limits within historical times. The 

 habitat of these familiar beasts once extended to the Indian plains, 

 but modern firearms have been the cause of their contracted area. 

 Deer, wild pigs, including a pygmy species {/Sus silvanius), as 

 well as several goatlike mammals, abound in various localities. 



I always associate that remarkable fruit bat, Pteropus eduUs, the 

 flying fox, that one sees in flocks sometimes numbering thousands all 

 over India and Ceylon, with another living object, the beautiful 

 deodar {Gedrus deodara). These destructive Chiroptera roost (or 

 hang upside down) from many other trees, but the small fruit of 

 this " timber of the gods " seems to be especially attractive to all 

 fruit bats. Pteroyus certainly justices his vernacular name. His 

 extended wings measure often more than 3 feet, his body is covered 

 with fine fur, and both head and body are shaped exactly like a 

 small, dark-colored fox. 



Almost every evening in any part of the country where there 

 are fruit bats and this lovely cedar, parties of flying foxes seem 

 to rise in the rays of the setting sun and take their flight with lazy 

 but loud flappings of their wide membraneous wings to settle in 

 the trees. Natives who have lawful possession of a gun take pol 

 shots at them, those that fall being used as food. I have eaten 

 many kinds of " flora and fauna," but I never could bring myself 

 to the mastication of fruit-bat flesh, although the Indians declare 

 it tastes like chicken. 



The domestication of the deodar in most countries has made it 

 familiar to Americans. Indeed, I believe I have seen as fine examples 



