PREFACE 



TAURING the latter period of my residence in 

 -■-^ India I kept a diary. The diary was chiefly 

 devoted to observations on the birds, insects, and 

 animals whose acquaintance I made in my garden, or 

 which I beheld on the bed of the river beyond. But 

 it also contained memoranda on the weather and the 

 changes of the seasons, notes of interviews with native 

 visitors, and of any interesting information I happened 

 to acquire. When I finally left India I brought the 

 diary with me, together with a variety of Persian 

 manuscripts and other Eastern books and papers. For 

 many years it remained unnoticed, half forgotten ; then 

 one day the fancy took me to open and peruse it. 



I found it interesting, sufficiently so to warrant the 

 hope that if expanded and arranged in the form of 

 a narrative it might prove a volume of entertaining 

 reading. After much delay and many interruptions 

 I have carried this idea into execution. 



The insects and animals described in the earlier parts 

 of the narrative are mostly those which in India are 

 very common, very insignificant, and on that account 



A 2 V 



