XII. 



A NATURALIST'S NOCTUARY. 



T AS a small boy, always thought that animals went to 

 ' sleep at sunset. This idea doubtless owed its origin 

 in part to that beautiful, albeit unzoological, hymn which 

 runs : 



" Now the darkness gathers, 



Stars begin to peep, 

 Birds, and beasts, and flowers 



Soon will be asleep." 



A great many grown-up people share this view. It is 

 true that they know that owls, rats, mice, and cats, to say 

 nothing of certain other unmentionable animals, are busy 

 during the night ; but they probably think, if they ever give 

 a thought to the subject, that such evil habits have arisen 

 from the contact of those animals with degenerate man. 

 Thus, J. K. Jerome writes of the guilty look on the face of 

 the tom-cat as he sneaks home in the morning after a night 

 spent on a roof of bad repute. 



The delusion that all animals spend the night in sleep is, 

 however, rapidly destroyed by a sojourn in this country. 

 India is indeed the land of nocturnal animals. Not but 

 that there are a great many of such creatures in other 

 countries. The difference consists in this : in cold and 

 temperate lands animals are nocturnal from necessity, where- 

 as in hot places, such as India, they are noctivagous from 

 preference. In England, for instance, fear of the enemies 

 which prey upon them obliges many animals to seek their 

 food by night : this means that the said enemies have no 

 option but to do likewise and to turn night into day. Some 



