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A NATURALIST ON THE PROWL. 
deciduous mantle called a kumblee , lumbar region armed with a sharp koita, 
removable at pleasure, close to which there is a gland or pouch containing a 
brown substance resembling tobacco ; habits terrestrial or arboreal ; habitat, 
the forests of the Sahyadri range. 
To this description it may be added that he constructs 
for himself a hut of various materials, such as branches of 
trees, bamboos, the stems of the karvee and grass, put 
together with much ingenuity and plastered with clay. 
On one side there is a small aperture, which affords exit 
to the occupants and also to smoke. As ants’ nests often 
contain small beetles, or curious insects allied to cock- 
roaches, for whose presence naturalists have never been 
able to account satisfactorily, so dogs of an undetermined 
species, and sometimes cats, are found in the dwelling of 
this anthropoid, but it is difficult to say what relationship 
subsists between them and the occupants. 
The anthropoid does not decorate his place of shelter 
with shells and bright stones, like the Bower Bird, but in 
one corner you will always find a few pots and pans of 
metal and an earthen chatty or two. Beyond these and 
a small store of food grains he appears to have absolutely 
no possessions, for the kumblee and the koita are more 
like parts of his structure. They are to him what claws 
are to the tiger, or the trunk to the elephant, and to under- 
