Leeches, which are rather slimy worms and vary in length from an inch to several inches, have two suckers, a big one at the rear and a smaller one at the mouth end. They have powerful muscles, which enable them to expand and contract their bodies. This makes them excellent swimmers. They can also use their suckers to crawl on …

You probably know that tigers live in jungles, and you may know that some come from India, but do you know that there eight distinct races of tiger scattered throughout Asia? The tiger ranges from Iran to Turkestan, Mongolia, Siberia and Korea. It is also found throughout India, Tibet, China, Thailand and Indo-China. Some even reach as far as the …

A newly-hatched crocodile is about eight inches long and can be found on the mud near the water’s edge of marshes, rivers, estuaries and lakes around the tropical regions of the world. For it is here that the female lays her eggs and buried them-to 70 at a time-in holes in the warm mud. Each of the hard-shelled eggs is …

Jipijapa Hat (named after a town in Ecuador, once a centre for hat trade) or a Panama hat or just Panama is a traditional brimmed hat of Ecuadorian origin that is made from the plaited leaves of the toquilla straw plant. Straw hats woven in Ecuador, like many other 19 and early 20th century South American goods, were shipped first …

It is a goat-like mammal found in the mountain ranges of Europe and Asia minor. It belongs to the Bovidae family and the Rupicapra species. Chamois is brown in colour with dark patches running through the eyes. It can be grow up to a height of 80 cm and weighs between 25 and 50 kg. Both the sexes have closest …

The Aryan theory, propounded by Max Mueller in the 19th century and linguist William Jones, states that Aryans were a class of fair-skinned, agrarian noblemen who came from Central Asia to inhabit India after the Indus Valley period. They destroyed the Indus Valley civilization and settled in India, and also composed the Vedas. However, this theory, also called the Aryan …

A totem is a stipulated ancestor of a group of people, such as a family, clan, lineage, or tribe. Totems support larger groups than the individual person. In kinship and descent, if the apical ancestor of a clan is nonhuman, it is called a totem. Normally this belief is accompanied by a totemic myth. Although the term is of Ojibwe …

A pagoda, in South-east Asia, is a cone-shaped monumental structure built in memory of the Buddha. But in the Far East, a pagoda is a tower-like, multi-storeyed structure of stone, brick, or wood, usually associated with a Buddhist temple complex. The pagoda is derived from the stupa of ancient India, which was a dome-shaped commemorative monument, usually erected over the …

A marsupial is a mammal which has a pouch. Its baby is born at a very early stage of development, and makes its way straight away to the pouch, where its suckles. At first the baby has no powers of suction in its mouth, and so the mother’s teat squirts milk into the baby’s mouth at regular intervals. Marsupials are …

A flying fox is a kind of bat and is so called because of its head somewhat resembles that of the fox. Most bats are small and look like winged mice. But flying foxes can be as big as little dogs and have a wingspan of up to six feet. Their habitats are rather similar to those of ordinary bats, …