Cover: Playing on a trapeze

School children of J/D Mavil R.C.T. M. Vidyalam in the Delft island enjoy themselves on a trapeze mounted in the school premises. Delft boasts of three or four schools within its confines. Mavil Tamil Vidyalam is a mixed primary school. Our cameramen Thilak Perera captured this photograph when he was on a Delft.

Back cover: In the Wilpattu wilds

Our shutterbug Susantha Wijegunesekara was at hand to click this picture of a wild mongoose in the wilds of Wilpattu.

Four species of mongoose are found in Sri Lanka. They are smaller than civets, and more slender. The stripe-necked mongoose (also called the badger mongoose) is larger than the other three species: 1.75 kg (females) to 3 kg(males),withdistinctiveorange-yellow tones in the fur of its rump and tail area. The three remaining species average 1-1.5 kg in females and 2 - 2.2 kg in males, the brown mongoose being slightly smaller and the ruddy mongoose slightly larger than the gray mongoose. The gray mongoose tends to be a lowland species, whereas the other three are very cosmopolitan in distribution, occupying a range

of habitat types. Except for the stripe-necked mongoose, which is rarely seen close to human habitation, mongooses appear to thrive in areas inhabited by humans and are frequent residents in people's back yards. Mongooses eat mostly insects, but other arthropods, vertebrates (including snakes), snails, eggs and, to a lesser extent, berries and other plant matter, are consumed. The ruddy is often seen inside putrefying carcasses, possibly feeding on insects living off the carcass. Mongooses are largely diurnal, but the brown mongoose is unusual in this respect and seems to be active mostly at night-Internet