Concerning Animals and Other Matters

Concerning Animals and Other
Matters

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Title: Concerning Animals and Other Matters
Author: E.H. Aitken, (AKA Edward Hamilton)
Release Date: February 6, 2004 [EBook #10962]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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CONCERNING ANIMALS ***

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[Illustration: Portrait of "EHA."]

CONCERNING ANIMALS AND OTHER MATTERS
BY E.H. AITKEN ("EHA")
AUTHOR OF "FIVE WINDOWS OF THE SOUL," "TRIBES ON MY
FRONTIER," ETC.
WITH A MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR BY
SURGEON-GENERAL W.B. BANNERMAN I.M.S., C.S.I.
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY J A. SHEPHERD AND A PORTRAIT
LONDON
1914

CONTENTS
"EHA"
I FEET AND HANDS II BILLS OF BIRDS III TAILS IV NOSES V
EARS VI TOMMY VII THE BARN OWL VIII DOMESTIC
ANIMALS IX SNAKES X THE INDIAN SNAKE-CHARMER XI
CURES FOR SNAKE-BITE XII THE COBRA BUNGALOW XIII
THE PANTHER I DID NOT SHOOT XIV THE PURBHOO XV THE
COCONUT TREE XVI THE BETEL NUT XVII A HINDU
FESTIVAL XVIII INDIAN POVERTY XIX BORROWED INDIAN
WORDS

Special thanks are due to the Editors and Proprietors of the _Strand
Magazine, Pall Mall Magazine and Times of India_ for their courtesy
in permitting the reprinting of the articles in this book which originally
appeared in their columns.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
HALF-TONES
"EHA"
THE NOSE OF THE ELEPHANT BECOMING A HAND HAS
REDEEMED ITS MIND
GOOD FOR ANY ROUGH JOB
HERE THE COMPETITION HAS BEEN VERY KEEN INDEED
THE RAT IS A NEAR RELATION OF THE SQUIRREL
ZOOLOGICALLY BUT PERSONALLY HE IS A GUTTER-SNIPE,
AND YOU MAY KNOW THAT BY ONE LOOK AT THE TAIL,
WHICH HE DRAGS AFTER HIM LIKE A DIRTY ROPE
A BLACKBIRD AND A STARLING--THE ONE LIFTS ITS SKIRTS,
WHILE THE OTHER WEARS A WALKING DRESS
THE NOSTRILS OF THE APTERYX ARE AT THE TIP OF ITS
BEAK
THE LONG-NOSED MONKEY
LINE BLOCKS
AN AUTHENTIC STANDARD FOOT
THESE BEASTS ARE ALL CLODHOPPERS, AND THEIR FEET
ARE HOBNAILED BOOTS
IT HAS TO DOUBLE THEM UNDER AND HOBBLE ABOUT LIKE
A CHINESE LADY
NO DOUBT EACH BIRD SWEARS BY ITS OWN PATTERN
ITS BILL DESERVES STUDY

AS WONDERFUL AS THE PELICAN, BUT HOW OPPOSITE!
THERE ARE SOME ECCENTRICS, SUCH AS JENNY WREN,
WHICH HAVE DESPISED THEIR TAILS
AT THE SIGHT OF A RIVAL THE DOG HOLDS ITS TAIL UP
STIFFLY
A SHREW CAN DO IT, BUT NOT A MAN
A BOLD ATTEMPT TO GROW IN THE CASE OF A TAPIR
I HAVE SEEN HUMAN NOSES OF A PATTERN NOT UNLIKE
THIS, BUT THEY ARE NOT CONSIDERED ARISTOCRATIC
WHO CAN CONSIDER THAT NOSE SERIOUSLY?
OR PERHAPS WHEN IT WANTS TO LISTEN IT RAISES A
FLIPPER TO ITS EAR
"TEAR OUT THE HOUSE LIKE THE DOGS WUZ ATTER HIM"
A GREAT CATHOLIC CONGRESS OF DISTINGUISHED EARS
THE CURLS OF A MOTHER'S DARLING

INTRODUCTION
"EHA"
Edward Hamilton Aitken, the author of the following sketches, was
well known to the present generation of Anglo-Indians, by his
pen-name of Eha, as an accurate and amusing writer on natural history
subjects. Those who were privileged to know him intimately, as the
writer of this sketch did, knew him as a Christian gentleman of singular
simplicity and modesty and great charm of manner. He was always
ready to help a fellow-worker in science or philanthropy if it were

possible for him to do so. Thus, indeed, began the friendship between
us. For when plague first invaded India in 1896, the writer was one of
those sent to Bombay to work at the problem of its causation from the
scientific side, thereby becoming interested in the life history of rats,
which were shown to be intimately connected with the spread of this
dire disease. Having for years admired Eha's books on natural
history--_The Tribes on my Frontier, An Indian Naturalist's Foreign
Policy, and The Naturalist on the Prowl_, I ventured to write to him on
the subject of rats and their habits, and asked him whether he could not
throw some light on the problem of plague and its spread, from the
naturalist's point of view.
In response to this appeal he wrote a most informing and characteristic
article for The Times of India (July 19, 1899), which threw a flood of
light on the subject of the habits and characteristics of the Indian rat as
found in town and country. He was the first to show that _Mus rattus_,
the old English black rat, which is the common house rat of India
outside the large seaports,