308 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTRAL INDIA. 



drooping branches of the huge mango trees, interlaced 

 overhead in a grateful canopy, and loaded with the half- 

 ripe fruit pendent on their long tendril-like stalks ; 

 while beneath them short glimpses were seen of the 

 bright clear waters of the Moran stealing over their 

 pebbly bed. The green mangoes, cooked in a variety 

 of ways, furnished a grateful and cooling addition to 

 the table ; and the whole grove was alive with a vast 

 variety of bird and insect life, in the observation of 

 which many an hour that would otherwise have flown 

 slowly by was passed. A colony of the lively chirping 

 little gray-striped squirrel lived in every tree, and from 

 morning to night permeated the whole grove with their 

 incessant gambols. My dogs would have died of ennui, 

 I believe, but for the unremitting sport they had in 

 stalkino- and chasinaf these unattainable creatures, whose 

 fashion of letting them get within two inches of them 

 while they calmly sat up and ate a fallen mango, and 

 then whisking up and sitting just half a foot out of 

 reach, jerking their long tails and rapping out a long 

 chirp of defiance, seemed highly to provoke them. 

 Clouds of little green ring-necked paroquets flew from 

 tree to tree, clambering over and under and in every 

 direction through the branches to get at the green 

 maj)g(jes. A great variety of bright-coloured bulbuls, 

 several species of woodpecker, and the golden oriole or 

 mango-bird, flashed about in the higher foliage, while 

 ;m ncessant hum told of the unseen presence of multi- 

 tudes of the insect world. 



I was much amused by the result of my tent being 

 pitched between two trees inhabited respectively by 

 colonies of the common black and red ants, so plentiful 

 in all wooded parts of the province. Each side sent 

 detachments down the ropes of the tent attached to 



