Notes on fauna

Yesterday Joe posted new photos in the Goa section. Some of them are of wandering cows. A viewer of these pictures asked, what about all the manure? In towns, a lot of it is stepped on or driven over, squashed unattractively and left in the roads and lanes. This situation is one of a number of ways in which India could use some sprucing up. However, large numbers of cow pies are collected (by lower-caste women), dried, stored and used for fuel for cooking during the summer monsoons. Also, rural people in some regions---mostly in the North---use cow manure in home construction.

The same reader asked about bugs. We sleep under mosquito netting (and take anti-malaria pills weekly), but generally the insects are not bad this time of year.

I wrote that a bird we hear sounds like the warbling whistler on the late-forties pop hit "Heartaches," by Ted Weems and his orchestra. The blog's head copy editor, Bill Ullman, tracked this down and actually listened to it. He identifies the whistler as Elmo Tanner. Now Bill knows what we hear in the jungles of South India. If you are as clever as Bill is with your PC, you can, too.

I said another "bird" sounds like a squeaky wheel. Last night, Joe heard it. He explained to me that this was someone's cell phone.