6 AN APOLOGY 



Even otters sometimes make their appearance, 

 attracted by the abundance of fish in many of the 

 ponds ; small bats of various species throng the 

 air at dusk, and may be seen at sundown issuing 

 in streams from unused chimneys and the recesses 

 of decaying walls; flying-foxes flap about amongst 

 the fruit trees in the evening, and occasionally 

 establish permanent colonies in which they hang 

 and wrangle all through the heat of the day. 



Reptiles, as a rule, are relatively scarce, with the 

 exception of the common house-geckos, who run 

 clucking about over all the walls, and who are 

 always welcome in any house from their unfailing 

 appetite for insects. Venomous snakes rarely occur 

 within the limits of the town of Calcutta, though 

 both cobras and vipers abound in the suburbs ; but 

 common rat- and water-snakes, together with various 

 other smaller harmless species, are often to be met 

 with in gardens in company with geckos and other 

 kinds of lizards. Toads swarm in every garden ; 

 almost every pond contains a population of small 

 frogs, and towards the outskirts of the town huge 

 bull-frogs annually hail the onset of the rainy 

 season in deafening chorus. All the ponds swarm 

 with plants and animals ranging from Nelumbiums 

 and Nymphseas to Desmids and Diatoms and from 

 tortoises to Infusoria. Insects of the most various 

 types, and too often of the most offensive habits, 

 abound everywhere ; white ants plaster the stems 



