CREATURES OF THE WILDERNESS 49 



it was after returning home, coming back to a 

 land that had forgotten him and that offered 

 the best of its sport only to those with deep 

 purses. Interesting as are the smaller children 

 of the jungle to the naturalist, very little is said 

 of them in these pages, and there is only 

 incidental mention of Indian birds, which in- 

 clude the grotesque horn bills, the tuneful sun- 

 birds, the gorgeous peacock, dancing adjutant, 

 and hideous vulture. Indian birds are, thanks 

 to the native practice of leaving them in peace, 

 singularly fearless and may therefore be studied 

 more easily than the feathered folk of some 

 other countries in which, alas! man has been 

 the enemy and not the friend, and those who 

 want a really interesting handbook by way of 

 introduction cannot do better than procure a 

 copy of Mr. Douglas Dewar's Jungle Folk, 

 in which the author gives a most amusing 

 account of his Indian friends. It is as enjoy- 

 able a book on birds as any I remember 

 reading. We are here concerned rather with 

 the elephant and tiger, with rhinoceros and 

 buffalo in the long grass of the lowlands, with 

 the cunning " bison," trusting sambur, and 

 fighting wild boar that live in the cool forest 

 glades, with the graceful blackbuck that scour 

 the plains, with the black and brown bears of 

 the foothills, and with the magnificent Hima- 

 layan wild sheep and goats, whose branching 



