en the big and the second toe, pulls out the nuchal plumes. This
operation lasts about five seconds. The bird is then set at liberty,
far more astonished than hurt. It betakes itself to its wild
companions, and the net is again set. Presently another egret is
caught and divested of its plumes, and the process continues all day.

The bird-catchers spend six weeks every year in obtaining cattle-egret
plumes in this manner. They sell the plumes to middle-men, who dispose
of them to those who smuggle them out of India.

If stuffed birds were used as decoys and the plumes of the captured
birds were snipped off with scissors instead of being pulled out, the
operation could be carried on without any cruelty, and, if legalised
and supervised by the Government, it could be made a source of
considerable revenue.

JUNE

'Tis raging noon; and, vertical, the sun
Darts on the head direct his forceful rays;
O'er heaven and earth, far as the ranging eye
Can sweep, a dazzling deluge reigns; and all
From pole to pole is undistinguish'd blaze.

* * * * *

All-conquering heat, oh, intermit thy wrath,
And on my throbbing temples potent thus
Beam not so fierce! incessant still you flow,
And still another fervent flood succeeds.
Pour'd on the head profuse. In vain I sigh,

* * * * *

Thrice happy he who on the sunless side
Of a romantic mountain, forest crown'd
Beneath the whole collected shade reclines.
J. THOMSON.

With dancing feet glad peafowl greet
Bright flash and rumbling cloud;
Down channels steep red torrents sweep;
The frogs give welcome loud;

* * * * *

No stars in skies, but lantern-flies
Seem stars that float to earth.
WATERFIELD, _Indian Ballads_.

There are two Indian Junes--the June of fiction and the June of fact.
The June of fiction is divided into two equal parts--the dry half and
the wet half. The former is made up of hot days, dull with dust haze,
when the shade temperature may reach 118 degrees, and of oppressive
nights when the air is still and stagnant and the mercury in the
thermometer rarely falls below 84 degrees. Each succeeding period of
four-and-twenty hours seems more disagreeable and unbearable than its
predecessor, until the climax is reached about the 15th June, when
large black clouds app