314 COMMON BEASTS OF AN INDIAN GARDEN 



rush backward in the direction of the supposed 

 enemy. 



Common Indian hares, Lepus rujicaudatus, are 

 often very troublesome in suburban gardens. They 

 abound in the Botanic Garden to an extent that 

 renders it necessary that the beds in the flower- 

 garden should be carefully protected by surround- 

 ing fences of wire-netting. One morning whilst the 

 superintendent of the Garden was overhauling the 

 nursery, and enforcing the need of a general 

 clearance of the miscellaneous stores of rubbish that 

 are so sure to accumulate in native hands, he came 

 across a heap of dilapidated wire-netting. " Have 

 this thrown away at once, babu," said he to the 

 official in charge. " But, sir, it is to protect the 

 plants in the flower-garden from the insects," was 

 the immediate reply. This statement was at first 

 sight somewhat startling, but was accounted for 

 by the fact that the man, like Punch's railway- 

 porter, used the word "insect" as a generic term 

 applicable to any animal of unknown name and 

 nature. 



There are now, alas! very few gardens in 

 Calcutta, abutting on the river, like those of Garden 

 Reach in the days of its glory, before mills and 

 shipping -yards had devastated the grounds of the 

 great old houses that used to fringe the bank ; but 

 so long as the Botanic Garden remains where it is, 

 one may continue to regard the Gangetic dolphin, 



