186 THE ODYSSEY OF AN ANIMAL COLLECTOR 
flycatchers. In the undergrowth I occasionally saw, and frequently 
heard, Red Jungle Fowl—the cocks with their quaint short crow 
making known their whereabouts. The most conspicuous birds of 
the forest bed were the laughing thrushes and true thrushes, and 
in the more thickly wooded parts the Magpie-robin or Dayal Bird. 
The season was rather too far advanced for collecting at the 
lowest levels, for it was daily getting hotter and birds were already 
beginning to move to higher levels. 
In order to seek a new collecting base at a higher altitude I took 
the small-gage railway to Ghum, near Darjeeling, taking my bi- 
cycle with me. At eight thousand feet the air here was distinctly 
icy compared with that of the lower foothills, and a certain 
amount of snow lay on the ground. The sleet made cycling un- 
pleasant, but this cleared and I was soon in bright sunshine again. 
I was able to watch for birds, going slowly along the winding and 
beautifully graduated road with my brake on, for during the ride 
back of nearly forty miles, when I descended over seven thousand 
feet, I never once had to pedal. 
Inquiries led me to a vacant bungalow on the edge of some 
good forest near Mahanadi (5,000 feet), and in this the owners 
kindly consented to my staying for a couple of months. The air 
was much more invigorating here and the nights quite cold. 
We set off on the journey with a considerable menagerie, and 
an old cook we had brought with us from Calcutta and a locally 
recruited houseboy. It takes a while for one to adjust oneself to 
the servant code in India. As a European, it was of little import 
whether I was scrubbing cages, climbing trees, doing carpentry, or 
meeting the Governor-General, but the humble Indian servant 
lives in a shallow social stratum that keeps him within annoy- 
ingly narrow limits. Thus if a houseboy trips over himself and 
scatters the curry and rice in all directions on the floor, a special 
man—the sweeper—is sent for. If he, in turn, happens to have 
had a heart attack or has disappeared for no reason whatsoever, 
the dish will repose peacefully until a new sweeper has been 
recruited. The cook cannot wait at table, the houseboy cannot 
sweep, and so on. Therefore every respectable person in India 
has a minimum of five servants. 
Our cook was passable at his profession, but being old the 
