2o6 Notes on Natural History in India. [Sess. 



Bancla, having of late years retired to the denser forests 

 farther south ; but leopards, hyenas, and wolves are very com- 

 mon, and very destructive. Wild pigs are also exceedingly 

 common. Of the deer tribe, the two most common species 

 are the Indian antelope and the gazelle ; but spotted deer and 

 the magnificent elk of Southern India are occasionally met 

 with. Then the nilghau, a splendid animal, half deer and 

 half cow, is common. The male is of a beautiful blue colour, 

 and is called the blue bull by Europeans. Of the quadru- 

 mana, only two species are met with in Banda — the blackfaced, 

 black-handed, Entellus monkey, with a very long tail ; and the 

 Ehesus monkey, with cheek -pouches, red callosities, and a 

 moderately long tail. The number of individuals, however, 

 more than makes up for the small number of species. Many 

 thousands are met with in Banda. The sacred town of Kir- 

 wee, and the sacred groves of Chitterkot, in the Banda county, 

 are monkey paradises. Thousands of worshippers come from 

 all parts of India to feed the sacred monkeys of Chitterkot. 

 The Hindoos of the Vaishnav sect have a legend, that when 

 their supreme deity, Piama, was incarnate on earth, he was 

 banished from his native city, Ajudya, by his father and his 

 step-mother. He retired with his wife to the Chitterkot woods, 

 and there his wife was stolen from him by the demon-king of 

 Ceylon. The god had no human armies to help him, but the 

 monkeys of Chitterkot at once offered their services, and at 

 the head of a monkey army the god marched to Ceylon, con- 

 quered the island, killed the demon-king, and recovered his , 

 wife. Ever since then Chitterkot has been one of the holiest 

 places in India in the eyes of all Hindoos of the Vaishnav 

 sect, and no more pious deed can be done than feeding the 

 descendants of the monkey army which fought under tlie 

 orders of the god Eama. 



With regard to other mammals, hares, porcupines, ichneu- 

 mons, rats, and mice are all very common. To describe 

 the birds would take hours. There are no pheasants, but 

 the trees swarm with peacocks, and thousands of cranes, 

 of three species (the European, the Demoiselle, and the 

 Sarus), plunder the fields, assisted in winter by many species 

 of geese, which go in summer to breed in the Thibet lakes. 

 The species of ducks seen in the Banda lakes are also 



