268 COMMON BEASTS OF AN INDIAN GARDEN 



from getting on one's nerves in the way that 

 the ceaseless baying of pariah dogs so often 

 does ; the sounds of its solos and choruses are 

 frequently positively melodious when they come 

 from a distance, and, although this hardly holds 

 good when they are uttered close at hand, the 

 blood-curdling and fiendish character that they 

 then have is in itself not without a peculiar fascina- 

 tion of its own. As one lies wakeful in a steamy, 

 hot night, wearied out by the incessant shrilling and 

 whirring of insects and the explosively crackling cries 

 of the frogs, it is quite refreshing to become suddenly 

 aware that a jackal has begun to wail close at hand, 

 and to hear him repeat his doleful call until his 

 comrades begin to answer him, first in twos and 

 threes, and then in full chorus, coming nearer and 

 nearer, until at length their arrival is announced by 

 the soft tread of many feet and a subdued conversa- 

 tion of yapping barks (Plate XVI.). It is pleasant, 

 too, to look out on a brilliantly moonlight night 

 and see a large japkal bathing in the dewy grass, 

 lying about and rolling on the cool, drenched turf 

 with such manifest pleasure that one is almost 

 tempted to follow his example. 



Thirty years ago the streets of Calcutta were 

 nightly haunted by troops of jackals, yelling and 

 racing about from place to place in quest of prey, 

 but the closure of open drains and improved scav- 

 enging have gradually diminished their numbers. So 



