MENTAL POWERS OF ANIMALS. 367 



On my inquiring of one the reason for this action, he replied : — 

 ' The gandar [native name for rhino] always likes the young 

 leaves of the garran.' (This tree is used largely in Calcutta for 

 fuel, and is slender, and does not generally grow to a great 

 height.) Asked: 'But how do they get to the top leaves?' 

 ' Very easily, sir,' replied the shikari. ' They take it by turns 

 to eat. One of them leans his huge body against the stem ; the 

 soil being soft the tree bends with its weight. If yet too high 

 for the young leaves to be got at by the others, the animal moves 

 his body higher up the trunk of the tree.' ' But, then, would 

 not the tree lie where it had been pressed down?' ' Tempo- 

 rarily it does,' replied the shikari, ' but after a time the weight 

 of its roots brings it to an upright position again, and that 

 is why you see us always looking up at the tops of the trees to 

 see whether they have been nibbled at and broken off.' 



" These animals are now very scarce ; a great number of 

 them were destroyed in the cyclone of 1867. They are with 

 difficulty to be had except away up to the north. Prior to the 

 cyclone they were very numerous at the mouths of the Boy- 

 mangal and Molinchoo Bivers." 



My brother, Mr. Owen Dodsworth, of the Indian Forest De- 

 partment, was stationed for some time in the Sundarbans, and 

 informs me that the tigers in this tract know well the difference 

 between the ordinary boats and "dingies" (dug-out canoes). 

 The latter are used by the wood-cutters, and while some were 

 about to land on one occasion in the forest a tiger sprang into 

 the dug-out, caught a man, and sprang back again to land with 

 him. Had these men used an ordinary boat it is probable that 

 the animal would not have molested them. 



Birds sometimes show considerable intelligence in availing 

 themselves, during the breeding season, of the protection afforded 

 them by the more quarrelsome and powerful species. This is 

 notoriously the case with the larger Falcons, and " their fellow- 

 tenants of a rock or a tree are not only safe from molestation, 

 but actually look to them for protection." Some of the Dicruri 

 are exceedingly pugnacious during the breeding season, and 

 never allow crows, kites, et hoc genus omne, ever to approach 

 within their " spheres of influence." It is, therefore, not an 

 uncommon thing to find nests of the weaker species in close 



