142 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. VIII. 
some form of utility and respect for the bonds of society ; for, in 
India, it does not end in his extinction. The imperceptible series of 
degrees between the civilised man and the wild human animal 
prevent such annihilations of the latter, as have been seen in the 
great colonies, most speedy where the gulf between the two societies 
was greatest. 
Mr. Kipling’s chapter on “ Dogs, foxes, and jackals” is short, and 
wolves, he says, are out of his line, and passes on to cats. Then he 
has a chapter on animal calls ; but these are calls to, and not of, 
animals, and the next is on “ Animal training” with a similar meaning. 
He doesn’t think much of the art as practised in India, and goes on to 
reptiles. | 
And here, for the first time, we have to complain of what is dis- 
tinctly a “ false perspective,” as he would say himself. The chapter is 
headed with what he calls an “ Anglo-Indian Nursery Rhyme,” which 
runs as follows :— 
“ And death is in the garden 
Awaiting till we pass, 
For the krait is in the drain-pipe, 
The cobra in the grass,” 
Now there may be gardens in India where these things are ; but 
even in such a garden of horrors, the snakes do not lie in wait for 
the passing of children to bite them. As the child passed, the “ krait ” 
would shrink further into his drain-pipe, and the cobra glide away 
through his grass. And when was any Anglo-Indian nursery ever the 
worse of either, that these morbid terrors should be admitted into it, 
by any sensible mistress, to poison her children’s enjoyment of their 
few times and places of outdoor play? If there isany place where the 
Gruesome ought not to come, it 1s a nursery. 
Nor is there much more in this chapter to call for remark from the 
naturalist’s point of view. The next is upon “Animals in Indian Art,” 
and is extremely valuable, as the work of a past master in his matter, 
and then come on “ Beast fight,” to which, when brought about 
by human backers, we object asasight or a subject. A good fair 
natural duel in the wilderness is, indeed, a fine sight for the man 
lucky enough to watch it, and capable of taking no unfair advan- 
tage of the combatants. 
