322 BIRDS WHICH FOLLOW MAN. 



that we have ourselves seen a considerable flock of 

 undoubted wildfowl rise from the street of a populous 

 Indian village, as we were traversing its deserted streets 

 during the stillness of night, showing that wherever 

 scattered grain and other food is to be found lying 

 about, when the world is wrapped in slumber, these 

 watchful and daring birds will come to it, take their 

 fill of it, and afterwards make good their retreat in 

 safety. The same things are constantly done by the 

 minor beasts of prey, such as foxes, jackals, hyaenas 

 etc.; they will come right in among the houses and 

 carry off whatever offal may be lying about; and it 

 is not at all uncommon to hear the sharp bark of the 

 jackal close under one's windows, quite early in the 

 night, in some of the Indian cantonments. 



There are other sorts of game birds as for instance 

 partridges, pigeons, quail, prairie chickens, etc., and 

 also the rook which follow the footsteps of man like 

 his shadow. 



It is not too much to say that wherever man cul- 

 tivates the earth, that there these birds will follow him 

 and live upon the gleanings of his harvests, and they 

 will be found there in largely increased numbers com- 

 pared with what they will be in the wild uncultivated 

 districts. They live in fact, and breed, in among the corn 

 and other crops or in the meadows, woods and copses, 

 within easy reach of them. The daring robberies of 

 gardens by wood pigeons (one of the wildest and most 

 wary of birds) for instance, are well known ; they will 

 circle cautiously round overhead, and unless there is 

 a man actually left there on sentry-go, to drive them 

 away, the moment the gardener retires, they will swoop 



