314 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



setting dogs at cats, nor tying kettles to dogs' tails, and it has not 

 been found necessary to forbid bird-nesting by Act of Parliament. 

 The Indian schoolboy, on his way to school, passes numbers of 

 Squirrels, but never throws stones at them, and the Sparrow, the 

 Crow, the Mynah, and the Hoopoe move from his path without a 

 flutter of fear. The india-rubber catapult of the West has not 

 yet reached him ; and the sling and golel, or pellet-bow, are only 

 used when guarding fruit and crops from the hungry Parrakeet 

 and the omnivorous Crow. 



One of the most surprising things in India, says Mr. Kipling, 

 is the patience with which depredations on crops are endured. 

 With far less provocation the English farmer organises Sparrow 

 clubs, and freely uses the gun, the trap, and poisoned bait. And 

 the Indian farmer suffers from creatures that earn no dole of 

 grain by occasional insecticide. The Monkey, the Nilghai, the 

 Black-buck, the Wild Pig, and the Parrakeet fatten at his 

 expense, and never kill a caterpillar or a weevil in return. He 

 and his family spend long and dismal hours on a platform of 

 sticks raised a few feet above the crops, whence they lift their 

 voices against legions of thieves. 



The principle of abstaining from slaughter is pushed to an 

 almost suicidal point in purely Hindu regions, and becomes a 

 serious trouble at times. Mr. Kipling states that a large tract of 

 fertile country in the North-West Provinces, bordering on the 

 Bhurtpore State, is now lapsing into jungle on account of the 

 inroads of the Nilghai and the Wild Pig. The " Blue Cow," or 

 Nilghai, is sacred, and may not be killed even by villagers whom 

 the creature drives from their homes, and there are not enough 

 sportsmen or Tigers to keep down the Wild Boar. 



The tolerance or indifference which leaves wild creatures 

 alone is unfortunately an intimate ally of blank ignorance. That 

 townspeople should be ignorant of Nature is to be expected, but 

 even in the country a Flycatcher, a Sparrow, and a Shrike, are 

 all spoken of as chiriyas, birds merely, and not one in fifty, save 

 outcaste folk, according to Mr. Kipling, can tell you anything of 

 their habits, food, nests, or eggs. The most vague and incorrect 

 statements are accepted and repeated without thought, a habit 

 common to all populations, but more firmly rooted in India than 

 elsewhere. Original observation and accurate statement of fact 

 seem almost impossible to the Oriental, and education has not 



