58 



" late ; but as a general rule, on getting up I found my little pet 

 " under the drawers. They were wonderful ratters and quite equal 

 " to a cat in the rapidity of their movements, invariably running off 

 " with the rat to eat. I sometimes took them to the parade ground 

 " and slipped a couple of greyhounds after them. They never ran 

 " far, as when tired they lay down on their backs, and were at once 

 " recognised by the dogs ; on one of these occasions one fox was 

 " tired before the other ; and after he had made friends with the dogs, 

 "he joined them in the chase after the other. They used of an 

 " evening to play about on the lawn in front of the house, and the 

 " activity they then displayed was most astonishing, and I have 

 " often noticed them bounding, as does an antelope, without bending 

 " their legs in the least. Like all such pets they came to a sad end. 

 " The band-master's dog broke the back of one, and the other I took 

 " on the march with me to Secunderabad. My patternman* who 

 " was a heavy fat man was carrying it in his arms and caressing it, 

 " when his foot caught in a tent-rope and he fell with all his weight 

 " on the top of the little animal. It ran into a field of high cholum 

 " and was so hurt and frightened that we could not find it and as 

 " the regiment marched before daylight the following morning it 

 " was never recovered, I never remarked any disagreeable smell 

 " from them. In their habits they were very cleanly." 



A tame jackal I had for nearly eighteen months was nearly as 

 familiar, as good a rat-killer, and in many other habits resembled 

 these foxes. She would, without the least hesitation, try to turn a 

 strange dog out of the part of my garden in which she elected to 

 dwell, and from which she would always come to my call or whistle : 

 but she could never divest herself of the sneaking, thievish and 

 suspicious manners of her race, and could therefore never have been 

 nearly as interesting a pet as either of my friends' little grey foxes 

 must have been. 



No- 37- Cetacea- 



JERDON, PAGE 155 ; THE WHALE TRIBE. 

 My only sporting experience with these animals was on the 

 * An Anglo-Indian term for a "batman" or soldier servant, VAGKANT. 



