JACKALS, ETC. 281 



in the banks of a deep hollow, which was almost 

 dry in summer, but became converted into a small 

 pond in the rainy season, and, consequently, oppor- 

 tunities for the study of their manners and customs 

 abounded. When busy hunting they usually go 

 about in pairs, but now and then a party of three 

 or four may be met with, working their way 

 systematically over the ground in a way that 

 excites pity for any other animal inhabitants of the 

 place. During the course of their investigations 

 they every now and then sit up very erect, and 

 have a good look round with their warily glancing 

 little eyes, and when several are in company, their 

 labours are often varied by playful fights in which 

 the combatants wrestle and roll over and over on 

 the ground amid clouds of dust. They do not, as 

 a rule, come into the interior of Calcutta, but in 

 many other towns they are constant residents. In 

 Delhi, for example, the Queen's Gardens are almost 

 always haunted by numbers of them. Every one 

 knows what charming pets they are when there 

 is no risk of endangering the life of other captive 

 animals, and how useful they are in keeping a house 

 clear of snakes, rats, and mice. The exhibitions of 

 alertness and activity that they afford must be seen 

 to be imagined. A mungoose may be apparently 

 quite absorbed in business at one end of a large 

 room, but, should a gecko fall from the roof at 

 the other end, it is rarely that he escapes being 



