THE TiaER 247 



found. The bare brown country outside was entirely sbut 

 out by tbe long drooping branches of the huge mango trees, 

 interlaced overhead in a grateful canopy, and loaded with 

 the half -ripe fruit pendent on their long tendril-like stalks ; 

 while beneath them short gUmpses were seen of the bright 

 clear waters of the Moran steahng over their pebbly bed. 

 The green mangoes, cooked in a variety of ways, furnished 

 a grateful and cooKng addition to the table ; and the whole 

 grove was aUve with a vast variety of bird and insect life, 

 in the . observation of which many an hour that would 

 otherwise have flown slowly by was passed. A colony of 

 the hvely chirping little gray-striped squirrel lived in every 

 tree, and from morning to night permeated the whole grove 

 with their incessant gambols. My dogs would have died 

 of ennui, I beheve, but for the unremitting sport they had 

 in stalking and chasing these unattainable creatures, whose 

 fashion of letting them get within two inches of them 

 while they calmly sat up and ate a fallen mango, and then 

 whisking up and sitting just half a foot out of reach, jerking 

 their long tails and rapping out a long chirp of defiance, 

 seemed highly to provoke them. Clouds of httle green 

 ring-necked paroquets flew from tree to tree, clambering 

 over and under and in every direction through the branches 

 to get at the green mangoes, A great variety of bright- 

 coloured bulbuls, several species of woodpecker, and the 

 golden oriole or mango-bird, flashed about in the higher 

 f ohage, while an incessant hum told of the unseen presence 

 of multitudes of the insect world. 



I was much amused by the result of my tent being 

 pitched between two trees inhabited respectively by colonies 

 of the common black and red ants, so plentiful in all 

 wooded parts of the province. Each side sent detachments 

 down the ropes of the tent attached to their trees, and 

 numerous were the skirmishes and reprisals I watched 

 between them. At last, on coming in from a short stroll 

 one morning, I found the top of my tent had been the 

 scene of a pitched battle between the entire forces of each 

 party, multitudes on each side having been killed and 

 wounded. Their telegrams to head-quarters in the tops of 

 the trees must have much resembled those of the French 



