272 COMMON BEASTS OF AN INDIAN GARDEN 



They are very common in the open country round 

 Calcutta, and formerly frequented the maidan around 

 Fort William. Here there were various places in 

 which their earths were always to be found, 

 one of the most popular sites being on the banks 

 of a large pond immediately beneath the outer 

 wall of the Fort, and another lying to the north 

 of the enclosure of the Presidency Gaol. Such 

 constant residents were they, that the peculiar, 

 laughing bark that they so frequently utter during 

 their breeding season used, as it sounded out of the 

 stillness of an autumn night and travelled into the 

 streets bordering on the plain, to be one of the 

 regular and welcome intimations of the advent of 

 the cold weather. Now, however, like other in- 

 teresting animals, they have been improved out of 

 the locality, and it is only at rare intervals that 

 they are to be seen or heard within it. 



Carnivorous animals of other sorts are always 

 only too abundant in suburban gardens a fact 

 that has been painfully impressed on all those 

 who have had anything to do with the management 

 of the Zoological Garden in Alipur. At wide 

 intervals even a leopard may stray in from the 

 outlying country, and haunt enclosures quite close 

 to the town, lurking about among the dense 

 shrubberies, clumps of bamboos and other thick 

 covers during the day, and issuing forth at night 

 in search of prey. As they have a very decided 



