Then, in the heart of our town we didn't hear any sounds overnight during our sleep. There were no disturbances except for an occasional terrorizing sound - the screeching of owls! We consider here the owl's sounds heard at midnight as portending the presence of ghosts, and a bad omen. But in the modern West and the ancient Greece it is considered as to be a wise bird! What we see here in our town itself is the Spotted Owlet (Athene brama, 'Aanthai' in Tamil). It is a small bird of prey having the size of a dove. It is totally nocturnal.
In childhood, we used to talk about the exciting stories that we heard - like that of snakes and ghosts. Out of the snake stories there was one that of a green snake that strikes at eyes when one approaches it! It is the Green Vine Snake (Ahaetulla nasuta, Green whip snake, 'Patcha paamboo' or 'Kankotthi paamboo' in Tamil).
The word, camouflage was introduced to me when I joined N.C.C. (National Cadet Corps) at school. Then the ways of camouflaging practiced in battlefield were taught. Later I learned that animals also practice this camouflaging to evade a predator attack. Animals change their colors similar to that of their surrounding environment to become invisible!
