NATDKALIST IN INDIA. 307 



CHAPTEE XIV. 



Scavenger Animals — Their Utility— Hyena and Jackal Grave-Diggers — Swine 

 — Dogs— Sheep — Their disgusting Mode of Feeding — Measled Pork — 

 Tape-Worm — Antiquity of the Dog — CKraate of Eawul Pindee — ^Degrada- 

 tion of Alluvium — Storms — Heats of Midsummer — Effects on Europeans 

 — Agency of Storms and Removal of Organic Remains — Their Belation to 

 Fossil Remains — Moon-rise on the Himalayas — Death of Captain Colby 

 by Tiger — Departure for Peshawur — Elephant — Traits of Character — 

 Peshawur — Lawless Natives — Murders — Khyber-Pass — Scenery — Dangers 

 of Travelling — Manunala and Birds — British Birds — Migrations — Con- 

 clusion. 



The part played by certain mammals and birds in the removal 

 of refuse, more especially in hot climates, is far more import- 

 ant than generally supposed. As regards India and the East, 

 the chief actors in this great sanitary movement, or what 

 might justly be designated Nature's first-class scavengers, 

 embrace, among beasts, the jackal, hyena, domestic swine, dog ; 

 and among birds, vultures, kites, crows, minas, and the well- 

 known adjutant {LeptopHlos argala, Gmel.) I have noted many 

 facts in connection with the habits of these useful animals in 

 South-eastern Europe, North Africa, as well as Asia, and been 

 strongly impressed with the belief that, if the time should 

 come when the most prominent actors in the scene become 

 extinct, or greatly reduced in numbers, there will needs be 

 some means of making good the loss ; for most assuredly, if 

 Eastern cities were at present denuded of their carrion quad- 

 rupeds and birds, there is no system of conservancy on the 



