146 FAUNA OF INDIA 



Scientists draw an absurd distinction between 

 venomous and harmless snakes. As the American 

 said of Red Indians, there is but one harmless 

 snake and that is a dead one. 



Bears are most amusing to watch but dangerous 

 to meddle with. Natives are very frequently 

 injured by bears and detest them. I once watched 

 a bear up a tree trying to get at a honeycomb. 

 The way he grumbled and cursed sotto voce when a 

 bee managed to sting his nose was extraordinarily 

 funny. At last the bees got the better of him, 

 and he reluctantly slithered down the tree and 

 walked sulkily away grumbling, just as does an old 

 City clerk if he finds no room in the City bus on a 

 rainy morning. A bear possesses the combined 

 charms of a sulky porter and a slow railway 

 booking-clerk. Had I the option, however, of 

 shooting two of the three, I should let off the bear. 



I always found it excessively hard to hit a bear. 

 He looks enormous, generally gives you a fair 

 chance, and has less vitality than the cat tribe 

 and the deer tribe, but he is all fur ! The contrast 

 between a skinned and an unskinned bear is al- 

 most ludicrous. The only thing at all like it from 

 the standpoint of contrast is a grey owl, which is all 

 feathers. One takes a steady shot at what ought 

 to be the bear's heart and the bullet just cuts 

 through a mass of long black fur. It is as difficult 

 to locate a bear's heart as it is to locate some 

 human brains. Parenthetically I may mention 

 that a bear's paw baked in a clay jacket is quite 

 good eating. 



Mr. Pig I dare not mention. He is as sacred 

 to the Anglo-Indian as he is unclean to the 



