NATURALIST IN INDIA. 41 



The cry of the jackal is peculiar ; it is composed of a 

 succession of half-barking, half-wailing cries, on different 

 notes. When properly pronounced there is no better illus- 

 tration of it than the foUowing words, set to the music of the 

 animal's voice — 



" Dead Hindoo^Dead Hindoo ! 

 Where — ^where — ^where — where ? 

 Here — ^here — here — here ! " 



Being suggestive of a straggler, suddenly discovering a dead 

 body, and calling on the scattered pack to " come and feast ! " 

 They have evidently a predilection for human flesh, and some- 

 times, especially during epidemics or on battle-fields, they 

 have rare opportunities of indulging their appetites. It hap- 

 pened that during my stay at Kurrachee a pack of these 

 animals found their way into a hospital dead-house and muti- 

 lated two bodies of persons who died of cholera. 



In all the desert parts of Scinde the crested calandre 

 lark {Galerida cristata) is plentiful. It is not unlike the sky- 

 lark, but does not " up to heaven gates ascend." It is gene- 

 rally met with in flocks during the cold months. 



Although I have not shot or seen the chimney-swallow 

 in Scinde, I have observed specimens in collections made 

 ia Lower Scinde during the cold months ; also the beauti- 

 ful fairy roller {Irena puella), rare in the northern parts of 

 India. 



The CrocodUe-pond, or " Mugger-peer," as it is called, lies 

 to the north-west of Kurrachee. The journey for the first 

 few miles is of the usual uninterestrag description — sandy 

 plains, intersected with deep fissures and ravines, or studded 

 here and there with "scrub," the oleander-leafed spurge 

 {EwpJwrUa nerifolid) plentiful in aU waste and desert parts of 

 Sciade. 



