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WILLARD FISKE
LIBRARIAN OF THE UNIVERSITY 1868-1883
1905
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JUNGLE BY- WAYS IN INDIA
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HEAD OF DOE CHINKARA HORNS OF BLACK BUCK
JUNGLE BY-WAYS
« J SAO ss. 4
LEAVES FROM THE NOTE-BOOK OF
A SPORTSMAN AND A NATURALIST
BY §. P, STEBBING, LF .S., FRG.S.,.F.2.5.
WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS
BY THE AUTHOR AND OTHERS &
LONDON: JOHN LANE THE BODLEY HEAD
NEW YORK: JOHN LANE COMPANY MCMXI
r
A. 386243
PLYMOUTH! W. BRENDON AND SON, LTD., PRINTERS
Avs
“DEDICATED BY PERMISSION
TO THAT GOOD SPORTSMAN
HIS EXCELLENCY
THE EARL OF MINTO
G.C.M.G., G.M.S.I., G.M.ILE., P.C., ETC.
VICEROY AND GOVERNOR-GENERAL
OF INDIA
| PRB
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aad —_
PREFACE
ai UNGLE By-Ways in India,” as the title
implies, deals with the great jungle tracts
of Hindustan, and with the animal life
they contain—the animal life, that is, as
known to the Shikari man. The observations
and incidents related, and the materials for the
rough sketches in the text, are extracted from
notes kept in the diaries which are the out-
come of sixteen pleasant and interesting years
spent in the Indian Forest Service. What merit
these sketches, from both pen and pencil, may
possess must be sought for in that atmosphere
which breathes through accounts of incidents
set down at the time of their occurrence, or
immediately after—an atmosphere which, as I
believe, is to be only attained in this manner.
vu
Preface
The Forest Officer in India, whilst engaged upon
his ordinary routine duties, has what may be
considered unique opportunities for observing and
studying the animal life of the great forests and
jungles which he administers. Indeed, it would
be difficult to find a profession affording greater
interest in its daily avocations, whilst yielding
at the same time greater facilities for the enjoy-
ment of first-class sport amongst both large and
small game. And, as such, the Forest Service of
India can be commended to all young Britons
possessed of a love of science, a love of natural
history, and a love of sport.
It is an experience common to many true
sportsmen, I believe, that they soon grow tired
of the mere slaughter of the animals they go out
to seek. Gradually the fascination of the jungle
lays its hold upon them, and of the jungle-loving
denizens. It becomes a pastime of absorbing
interest to watch the life of the jungle in its daily
round from early morn to dewy eve, and again
in the solemn watches of the night. It becomes
an ambition to learn from, and strive to emulate,
the jungle man in his knowledge of all jungle lore,
and to strive to pick up some of his marvellous
tracking powers. Long years of close study, com-
bined with an exceptional aptitude for absorbing
jungle lore, must be passed through before one
can hope to even approach the powers in this
respect of the jungle man. But what a store of
viii
Preface
glorious memories do such years contain! From
such a store I have endeavoured to depict the
fund of pleasure, interest, and knowledge, let
alone that breezy spice of danger which adds
zest to all sport, which await the student of jungle
life in the shimmering East.
I should like to add a word about the sketches
of the tracks of the various animals dealt with.
These sketches were commenced in India a couple
of years ago, but I was, unfortunately, unable
to complete the whole series. That I have been
able to do so I owe to the courtesy of Mr. R. I.
Pocock, Superintendent of the London Zoological
Gardens, who placed at my disposal every possible
facility at his fine gardens. Unfortunately, Lon-
don does not possess an Indian Bison (Gaur).
My thanks are due to the Director of the Berlin
Zoological Gardens for some beautiful drawings,
which enabled me to check and improve my own.
I know of no other work where the ‘tracks’ of
Indian game-animals have been dealt with. Rough
as are my sketches, I am in hopes, therefore, that
they may prove of use to brother shikaris.
I would acknowledge my indebtedness to that
excellent little book, The Indian Field Shikar
Book, by W. S. Burke, for some of my notes
relative to size of heads, weight of animals, etc.
Where I have used my own records and notes,
I have checked them with his.
To His Excellency the Viceroy, Lord Minto,
1X
Preface
my sincere thanks are due for the kindly courtesy
which has permitted a brother sportsman to
dedicate these memories of the Indian Jungles to
himself.
To my Wife, and to Capt. H. Willis, of the
29th Lancers, my thanks are due for the use of
the photographs in the plates; and to Mr. W. C.
Fasson, Deputy-Inspector- General of Police,
Bengal, for two original plates depicting bison
incidents in the Chota Nagpur jungles.
Finally, I offer my grateful acknowledgments
to my Publishers for their unwearying courtesy
and the unsparing efforts they have taken to
produce the book in its present pleasing form :
for the outward appearance, at least, will, I feel
sure, appeal to all.
Eh. 2, SS.
INTRODUCTION
OFF TO THE JUNGLES
T is considered quite one of the London sights
to visit one of the great railway termini
for the North, just before the opening of the
festival of St. Grouse, and see the sportsmen
off to the moors. Truly it is a heart-inspiring if
commandment-breaking sight for those not going
themselves. The medley of eager sportsmen and
their not less obtrusive friends or would-be
friends ; the keen, clear-eyed porter with visions of
the good tip; the deferential platform inspectors
and guards in their neat, well-kept uniforms, and
the chaotic mass of smart leathern trunks,
Xl
Introduction
dressing-cases, kit- bags, immaculate gun - cases
and, last but not least, dogs, forms to all appear-
ance an inextricable confusion. Were not one’s
experience all to the contrary, one would think it
hopeless to expect anyone to get the mass disin-
tegrated and safely housed before the fateful second
on which the giant north-bound express will draw
out of the station with scarce a sound to show
that she has begun her great rush towards the
Moors.
Would not some of these beautifully tailored
and outfitted sportsmen open their eyes somewhat
if they could see the Anglo-Indian shikari off
to the jungles on six to eight weeks’ leave, or
better still, coming back from them. It is a sight
to be commonly met with on the platforms of the
great up-country junctions in India, and most
plentiful in—of all seasons—the hot weather, and
is one particularly characteristic of the race.
The temperature may be ranging at anything
from 100 to 120 in the shade; not exactly a time,
one would think, when one would take unnecessary
railway journeys or rough it out in camp in tiny
tents, spending hours tramping about in the hot
Indian sun. But what do we see on the platforms ?
Of course the home-goer, the lucky furlough man
and his appurtenances, are only too visible for two
days in each week during April—May, mail day
and the day before. We are well used to the
lofty pitying look they cast on us who are only
Xi
*
Introduction
‘for the jungles’ this year, but what care we?
Next year, or the year after, we shall be occupying
their position. Now we are all intent on the
jungles and the glorious free life they have in
store for us.
Sitting in one of the usual railway refreshment
(save the mark!) rooms so liberally provided for
the travelling public, I was seriously engaged in
making up my mind as to whether to try this
time the izfeesh with a queer blacky-brown sauce
to it; the everlasting ichop, tough as blazes, and
floating in dirty coloured gravy; the equally
inevitable ‘ bacon-egg,’ the former like bits of
leather soaked in rancid fat, the latter of the most
doubtful freshness ; or that piece de résistance (in
more senses than one) of the East, the vegetable
and mutton (or goat) curry which is apt to prolong
reminiscences of breakfast to an undue length
throughout the day if partaken of at all freely.
With heavily knit brows I endeavoured to make
a choice, and it was perhaps a memory of the
breakfast-room at some of our great London
termini which brought to my mind the festival
of St. Grouse as I saw a train rumble slowly in to
the platform in front of me. A couple of agile
youngsters in khaki, subalterns obviously, tanned
and burnt brick-red by the days of exposure to the
hot-weather sun, sprang from a second-class
carriage (all the rupees are wanted for the ex-
penses of the shoot, and are not to be unnecessarily
xiil
Introduction
wasted on luxuries in mere travelling), their open
faces bearing a look of mixed gloom and joy.
Gloom that the six weeks’ outing is over, and that
they have to return to the amenities of civilized
life. It is true that they will now see a punkha
or fan again, will be able to drink deep in iced
drinks, and see once again a bridge table. No
further delights, for that stunning girl with the
grey-blue eyes and glorious golden hair has flitted
to the hills !
But what are all these in comparison to the
untrammelled freedom of the jungles, even with
the temperature at 200 and only a tiny fal tent
to ward off the fierce rays ?
The joy and pride on their faces is for the bundle
of horns which they carefully see lifted out of their
carriage, together with several old battered leather
rifle and gun-cases.
A couple of leathern trunks and two rolls of
bedding, water-bottles, a wooden store box, and
an old shikar topi or two with sticks, and an open
deal case of soda-water bottles with a lump of ice
sticking on top of them, the latter luxury picked
up since they joined the railway, for assuredly no
ice, or soda either probably, did they see or burden
themselves ,with in camp. On looking on this
battered collection of kit, your eye will run criti-
cally over the horns. Not much, perhaps, will
be your verdict. Nothing big. No, there may
be no record heads. But to their proud possessors,
XIV
Introduction
the result of this one of the forerunners of many
glorious shoots, that little pile of horns repre-
sents hours of patient toil and tramp, hours of
discomfort through the long hot day when the
flies nearly drove one mad, and the heat tempera-
ture went up and up and up, until you felt as if you
would never and could never get cool again, nor
ever get rid of the thirst which assailed and
tempted you to drink and drink and drink to the
detriment of fitness and shooting capabilities.
Having taken in the well-known collection of kit
that one expected to find issue from the sahib’s
compartment, the eye wandered down to the
third-class carriages and soon alighted on the rest
of the party. A servant, black-bearded and fierce-
moustached with fine features, evidently an up-
country man by face and figure, was engaged in
extracting from the interior of the carriage, with
the help of a couple of orderlies in khaki shikar
kit, and a number of clothesless station coolies in
their usual deshabille, a mass which, often as one
has seen it, is ever apt to startle and appal one with
its heterogeneous character and the talent, for it
can be nothing else, which the native displays for
making one’s kit look as awful and disreputable as
it possibly can. It is bad enough on an ordinary
railway journey which is to terminate in a visit to
friends when your bearer persists in carrying your
best topi and straw hat wrapped up in a towel, and
your boots and half your clothing in your bedding
XV
Introduction
roll (which thus assumes mammoth proportions),
and so on. But, ye gods, when it is a shikar ex-
pedition! It is then that your servants appear
in their full glory, their devilish ingenuity is
exercised up to the hilt, and it requires the ex-
perienced eye of the Anglo-Indian shikari to make
out the uses of even a tithe of what the carriage is
now disgorging on to the platform before the eyes
of that astonished railway official, who seems to
remember that there is a rule somewhere about
weighing luggage. If there be, it is quite dis-
regarded by our young shikaring subalterns, who
stroll up serenely to see how it goes with the rest
of the kit. Two rolls of khaki cloth (how lovingly
they look at them!) are their little tents, the happy
home of the happy, happy past six weeks. A couple
of green rolls consist of a canvas tub, chair, basin,
and table. A gunny bag fastened at an end con-
tains the low fold-up bedstead. Tent poles, tied
with a bit of jungle fibre cut from the nearest scrub
when the poles were last and finally bound together,
are pitched out. Then follow the weirdest collection
of paraphernalia: servants’ bedding and brass
lotahs, cooking-pots, kerosine-tins for the sahib’s
hot bath water, baskets containing a variety
collection of odds and ends ; two wretched murghis
in a small wicker cage with legs tied together, but
who with admirable presence of mind as soon as
they reach the platform with a bump push out their
heads and commence to search for stray grains of
Xvl
Introduction
seeds. Of a size of a large pigeon are these Indian
fowls, and with as much taste and succulence in
them as a piece of wash-leather ; but still they
appear to serve to keep life in the sahib somehow,
for in many parts they practically form his sole
meat, they and a piece of tough old goat now and
then, whose flesh is to murghi flesh as is wash-
leather to rhinoceros hide.
My eyes move from the eager fowls to see a great
bundle of skins, the sahib’s trophies, issue forth from
the carriage door, being reverently handed from
one orderly to the other. Here, again, the unin-
itiated would exclaim in horror at there being
anything worth looking at. The bundle resembles
any other bundle of old dried smelling skins one
has seen going to a tannery at home. Yes, to
the uninitiated I admit it is so, but to the
shikari, no. To him the bundle is worth a stroll
on to the platform to inspect, and a casual
question to one of the orderlies as to where the
sahibs have been to have secured such hand-
some trophies as the result of their straight shoot-
ing and their orderly’s keenness. Smart to the
salute comes the orderly, as with a grin spreading
slowly across the wide broad face till it disappears
into the pugri, covering an ear on each side, he
names the jungle and descants on the skins, swelling
with pride. Now we note a bundle of odd horns,
sambhar, chitul, barasingha, and drop a word of
congratulation on their keen sight, for these are
éb XVii
Introduction
newly dropped horns picked up in the jungle by
the orderlies or native guides when on their shikar
outings.
The value of these shed horns, which are
annually collected by the natives and disposed of
for a few annas in the bazaars, is probably con-
siderable, though I have never heard of any
figures having been drawn up to show it. As we
shall see, the various deer shed their horns in the
hot-weather months. It is, however, unusual to
find more than a stray horn in the jungle in areas
where deer are numerous, and this absence of
shed horns can but point to the careful search and
systematical collection made of them by the neigh-
bouring inhabitants of the tracts inhabited by the
beasts, or by the jungle races of the country who
live in and roam over the forests year in and year
out.
At last the carriage has disgorged its eye-
startling contents, and the horns and skins and
rifle and gun-cases are piled on to one of those
gharis variously called ticca gharis, or plague
boxes, which form our hansom in the East. The
gharry itself is in the last stage of dilapidation,
though it proudly bears a ‘I’ on it and calls itself
first-class; the ponies or tats are of the smallest
dimensions and of the sorriest description, and the
harness is a collection of rotten leather straps
kept together by still rottener string. However,
the youngsters climb in and drive off to rejoin
xviii
Introduction
and show their spoil. A patient bullock-cart then
moves up as if time was no object, and did not
exist—but this is the way of the East, and we all
have to fall into line with it! I, for instance, am
philosophically waiting a train which has never
yet been known to come in within five hours of
the advertised time, so the inspector tells me with
a leer. The servants and orderlies are for once in
a hurry, however. They want to get home now
they are so near. The heterogeneous mass of
objects is piled into the gharry amidst execrations
on the part of each individual assister in the per-
formance, and at the end of ten minutes’ pande-
monium off goes the rest of the “kit”; to the
accompaniment of a dull rattle as the kerosine-tins
bump against the near wheel as it crawls slowly
round, whilst the end of a tent pole grinding
against the off one emits a direful shriek. The
kit is off.
We can imagine the sniff of contempt of our
immaculate home sportsmen! And yet the ex-
perienced know that with that kit and by means
of it those youngsters have had far finer sport than
money could purchase in the Old Country, whilst
that brawny servant with a couple of stones and a
hole in the ground will and often in the past has
turned out a dinner which, to a hungry sports-
man, be he prince or subaltern,jis all that can be
desired.
The London cabby too. He is a facetious man.
x1X
Introduction
It would be interesting to hear him on the ticca-
walla of the East! Even more so perhaps to ask
him to load up the “kit” of an Anglo-Indian
shikari !
i ae M5
LAA Os aN
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at ) 7
CONTENTS
PART I.—ANTLERS
CHAPTER I
Shooting in Northern India jungles—The Christmas shooting
camp—The denizens of the jungle—Beautiful scenery—A
sportsman’s paradise—The ‘Jungle Eye’— Grass jungle and
tree forest—Chitul, pig and sambhar—Elephant’s dislike of pig
—Kakar and black buck—Dislike of buck for elephants—A
lucky shot—Shooting off an elephant—-Bees and ant worries
—Life in the upper forest : ‘ 2 3 Page
CHAPTER II
Beating in Northern Indian jungles—How to beat—Off for a
day’s beating—A blue bull—Shooting before the beat starts
—The beat commences—A herd of chitul—Pig—Wiliness of
the old peacock—Jungle fowl—A sambhar stag—Wariness of
the old stags—The sambhar breaks out—Death of the stag—
The lunch-carrier—Social amenities = :
CHAPTER III
Barasingha and chitul—Barasingha does—Barasingha, chitul,
and sambhar stags—A herd of barasingha breaking cover to
graze—The old stag leads the way—Unrest of does—The
herd on the alert—The alarm—A good barasingha stag—Size
xxi
18
Contents
of horns—Tracks of barasingha—The midday siesta—Bark-
ing of trees by stags—The silent forest pool—A glorious stag
—Chitul—Beauty of the stag—Habits—Size of horns—Chitul
tracks —Wariness of the old stag—A herd leaving forest to
graze—Patient wait for the stag—Curiosity of does—The stag
appears—Darkness approaches—The stag grows curious—
Death of the stag. ; ‘ , : : ss Page 30
CHAPTER IV
Sambhar—Habits—Does—Appearance—Tracks of sambhar—
Size of horns—Mother and youngster--The mother’s alarm
—The youngsters behaviour—The youngster takes a toss—
The sambhar stag—Wariness of—How to find the stags—
Disappearance of large stags from plains’ forest— Poaching
—Tracking the old stags in the hills—Difficult country—
The big stag —An unexpected rencontre —A cold wait—
Drawn blank:-A long tramp—See a stag—Fall of the stag—
A difficult descent—Find the stag—Curious horns—The
native shikari’s two kinds of sambhar . : Q : . 54
CHAPTER V
The hog deer—Appearance and horns—Habits—How to shoot
—Shooting off the elephant in grass jungle—Difficult shots
—Stalking—Tracks—Barking deer or kakar—An annoying
little animal—Appearance—Curious horns—Tracks— Habits
—Easy to stalk and kill—Young ones—Indian mouse deer
—A tiny deer—Habits— Has no trophy ‘ 75
CHAPTER VI
Some difficulties in stalking— Importance of knowledge of habits
of animals met with—-Stalking black buck—A fox intervenes
—I miss the buck—Monkeys—Run into a family party—
Stalk a stag chitul—The monkeys give the alarm—Lose the
stag—The monkeys’ panchayit . 3 ; : 85
PART II—HORNS
® CHAPTER I
Bison—The gaur and mithan—Habits—First experiences—The
bison country—Appearance of tracks—A tropical storm—
How I saw my first bull bison—-I wound a bison—Back to
camp in the dark—The bison country again—An early start—
Face to face with a bull elephant—Run down the bull bison—
Fail to bag him—Find a herd—My first bison—A long trek 101
xxii
Contents
CHAPTER II
Bison in Malabar—A sporting herd—Tropical forest in the mon-
soon—Bamboo forest—Stalking difficulties—I wound a bull—
The herd charges—I turn the herd and kill a cow—Track
up the wounded bull—The Central Provinces again—Come
upon a bull—My tussle with the bull—A missfire—An
awkward predicament—Anxious moments—Death of the bull 136
CHAPTER III
Shooting tips—Cocking both hammers of heavy rifles—
Experience with a bison and a 10-bore paradox—The bison
and the 8-bore—Experiences in bison tracking—Old cart-
ridges—Charmed life of a black buck . : ‘ s . 169
CHAPTER IV
Black buck—Marvellous leaping powers—Appearance and size
of horns — Horned females—A gay Lothario— Habits —
Methods of shooting buck—Stalking—A nasty stalk and a
miss—Dislike of elephants—Tracks of buck—Blue bull or
nilgai— Peculiar gait— Horns— Habits—Easy to shoot—
Importance of conciliating villagers near your shooting-
grounds—A morning’s stalk—Appearance of nilgai tracks—
Death of the bull . : : ‘ 5 ‘ . , . 176
CHAPTER V
The four-horned antelope—Habits—Tracks—Head scarcely a
trophy—The chinkara or ravine deer—Buck and does
horned—Habits and distribution—Lives in desert tracts—
Stalking — A midday stalk— Fascination of the desert —
Chink tracks—A morning’s stalk—A curious desert beetle—
The greater bustard—Death of the buck. ‘ ‘ . 193
PART III.—PELTS
CHAPTER I
Tiger—The King of jungle sports—Tiger country—Knowledge
of country necessary for successful beating—Aid of native
shikaris—Tiger ‘ pugs’ or tracks—Size of tigers—Number of
cubs born— Beating up tiger with elephants—Thrilling work—
Glorious jungle scenery—Waiting for the beating elephants
—‘Stripes’ unwilling—The broken line—Different behaviour
of beaten tigers—A difficult beat and a long wait—Some
Xxili
Contents
queer neighbours—There’s many a slip—Beating out a cur—
Breaks back—Rout of the tiffin elephant—Half-hearted
charges—Lies close—The cur meets his deserts—Padding
the tiger . : : : : ‘ ‘ ‘ . Page 209
CHAPTER II
Tying up and sitting up for tiger—The ‘gara’ or ‘kill’—How
to tie up—Native shikari tactics—Government rewards for
man-eaters—News of a ‘kill’—Beating out the tiger with
villagers—Stops—A plucky kol—Machan-shooting—Fasci-
nating jungle sights—Vultures—The pea-fowl’s warning—A
tiger appears—Despair—Meet a tiger on the prowl—The
Bhisti’s adventure—Cattle-lifters—A kill—How to prepare
the machan—My first tiger—The cattle-lifter—Cattle-lifting
extraordinary—Sit up for the robber—Mosquitoes—The tiger
appears—A lost opportunity—When the blood is young—
Things incredible . ‘ ‘ : ‘ : : 2 . 237
CHAPTER III
Leopard or panther—Most crafty of the cat tribe—Habits—
Disliked by the villager—The subaltern’s hope—Distribution
—Size of leopards—Tying up for leopard—Craftiness in a
beat—Abundance of leopards—Shooting ‘spots’ with No. 6
—Leopards and small-bore rifles—Sitting up for the pard—
A night adventure—Contrariness of the goat—An afternoon
rencontre—The pard in his natural surroundings ‘ . 260
CHAPTER IV
Bear—Habits—An amusing incident—Bear tracks—Size and
weight—Where to find bear—His food—Behaviour when
roused—How to shoot bear—Beating—Machan work—My
first beat for bear—Kols and Santals—Blank beats—Go out
after bear again—The Raja and his subjects—See and miss
my first bear—Points to be remembered—Other ways of
getting bear . : 3 ‘ i ‘ 5: : , » 298
CHAPTER V
Hyzna, jackal, and wild dog—Jackal—Habits—A useful
scavenger—Pelt—The hyzna—Distribution and habits—
Food—Cowardly nature—Hyzena pugs—Hyeena in a beat—
Wild dog—A game-destroyer—Distribution—Methods of
hunting game—Immune to poison—Should be shot on sight 297
xxiv
ILLUSTRATIONS
Sambhar stag and doe : :
Horns of chinkara buck: Head of buck chinkara :
of doe chinkara: Horns of black buck
Bull elephant
Spotted deer stag
A shikar camp
Carrying home the camp kit
A mighty boar appears
Head of bull bison
Sambhar horns ;
The tumbling mass of foothills
A howdah elephant : : 4 ‘
Scenery in the vao beds in the Siwaliks, N. India
A herd of chitul go skipping away in the long grass . 7
A chorus of grunts and squeaks proclaims a sounder of pig
flalf Title page
Head
Frontispiece
Title Page
PAGE
vil
xi
To face A
The fierce red ant and his home of leaves : Worker ant carrying
grub: Comb of large Indian bee
Lizards of all sorts and sizes
xxv
To face p.
: 17
Illustrations
The foothills and broad vao bed
A herd of chitul file across the nullah bed
Tracks of the wild boar .
Suddenly at ground-level a head appears
Plunges madly through the forest . '
The Indian lunch-carrier: Pad elephant ready for an evening
stroll ' F : ‘ . To face p.
Barasingha does
The old barasingha stag led the way
Herd of barasingha leaving the forest to graze .
A number of pairs of bat-like ears
Tracks of barasingha
The midday siesta—barasingha
Young barasingha stags sparring . .
A 14-pointer barasingha stag seated at the edge of fi tarn
Chitul stags and doe
Chitul tracks
A heavy barasingha head: A 37-inch chitul head To oe re
A herd of chitul on the edge of the forest .
Out steps the stag
The long-white scuts of the doe ehitnl
Sambhar does leaving the jungle to graze
An old doe will stand on the edge of the forest
Sambhar tracks
The thick scuts of the sambhar ae
Mother and youngster
Sal forest and open grass area in the Central Provinces: Heavy
sambhar and chitul heads shot in the Central Provinces
To face p.
Sambhar stag returning to the forest in the early morning
Sambhar tracks ‘
Sambhar tracks :
Horns of hog deer: curious sambhar horns. To face p.
Shooting hog deer from the howdah
Tracks of the para or hog deer
xxvi
Illustrations
A kakar or barking deer
Tracks of kakar or barking deer ; . :
Horns of barking deer: Boar’s head: A Kalan d deer 7, 0 face p.
The dainty little mouse deer
The fox started barking at me
The stag was on the gu vive ‘ d
Overpowered by fear, he took a wild leap for safety
Dead sambhar stag
Horned black buck doe .
I faced the bull bison at digiteansy paces
Horns of Indian bison or gaur and of the mithan: Lungoor
monkey ‘ : j To face p.
A giant pipal tree with its eines silvery trunk
Tracks of Indian bison or gaur
The bull stopped diagonally on sitet a fair choles shies
To face p.
A herd of bison under a fine old mango tree .
The elephant stood the very embodiment of vigilance
We ran the bull bison to earth in a bamboo brake .
He came slowly from behind a clump of bushes To face p.
My first bull bison
A seething mass of wildly tossing, piaehily euatiin ne
A cow turned suddenly and fronted us : : :
Head of bison or gaur: The bison country To face p.
The wonderful leaps of the black buck
He shook his head at me and rolled over dead: Head of nilgai
or blue bull i : To face p.
The black buck went off ee
Gallop in a lollopy, lumbering fashion across the plain
A black buck and doe at play
I missed the buck after all
Tracks of black buck
Tracks of nilgai . :
There was the bull, standing —, a twisted mimosa tree
I sighted on the biggest buck
XXVil
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154
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172
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176
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182
183
190
192
193
Illustrations
Tracks of the 4-horned antelope
A chinkara buck : . ‘ ‘ ; .
Head and horns of nilgai: A black buck: Horns of 4-horned
antelope: Head of buck 4-horned antelope . To face p.
Tracks of chinkara
The chink stopped near the edge of a ravine
Method of bringing a dead tiger back to camp in the Central
Provinces : ; :
Face to face
The pugs of a tiger, fore and hind
A stick insect on a grass head
Down the centre of the grass came galloping a fine tiger
A tiger charged through the grass .
A fitting pall for the great cat
‘Stripes’ himself walking across to the kill
Central Provinces beaters and their camp: A forest rest house
in the Central Provinces: Tiger country To face p.
Vultures gorge themselves to repletion
A large tiger moving parallel to our direction
There were the pugs of a large tiger
A hill tiger
The leopard or ‘spots’ : ‘ ,
Whilst ‘spots’ sits on his hatches at the edge of the eis
A large leopard stretched at length along the tree
Bringing home a dead leopard ‘ :
The large tents looked white and cool against rhe dark green .
Track of a bear ‘ : A 4 :
The common black or sloth ia of the plains: A beautiful
shooting country in the Central Provinces . To face p.
Saw a bear bolting past my machan
A wild dog
Pugs of hyzena . ;
A last evening stroll on a pad destann
ANTLERS
CHAPTER I
Shooting in Northern India jungles—The Christmas shooting camp
—The denizens of the jungle—Beautiful scenery—A sportsman’s
paradise—The ‘Jungle Eye’—Grass jungle and tree forest—
Chitul, pig and sambhar—Elephant’s dislike of pig—Kakar and
black buck—Dislike of buck for elephants—A lucky shot—Shoot-
ing off an elephant—Bees and ant worries—Life in the upper
forest.
SHOOTING IN NORTHERN INDIA JUNGLES
O those of us who have enjoyed the free
and easy life of a Christmas shooting
camp in the jungles of Northern India,
how happy are the memories conjured
up by reminiscences of the days spent out in the
long grass or high forest beating on elephant or
afoot for large and small game.
The jungles of which I am writing hold a variety
3
Jungle By-Ways in India
of some of the most interesting animals of the
Asiatic Fauna. The heavy but active sambhar
(Cervus unicolor), the lumbering awkward nilgai
(Portax pictus), so unlike one’s conceived notions
of an antelope, the beautiful and graceful spotted
deer (Cervus axis) or chitul, as it is called up here,
the parva or hog deer (Cervus porcinus), and the
wonderfully built little black buck (Antilope
cervicapra), which inhabit the open cultivated
plains and are only to be found in the outer
fringes of the thick forest. To these must be
added the tiny four-horned antelope (Tetracerus
quadricornis) and the red-coloured barking deer
(Cervulus muntjac), locally called kakar, and
known in Southern India as the jungle sheep.
In some parts one can also include in the above
list the glorious antlered barasingha, or swamp
deer (Cervus duvaucellz), to secure a heavy fourteen-
pointer of which is and must ever be the ambition
and aim of every sportsman who has once come
across this beautiful deer.
All the above species of the deer and antelope
tribes may appear on the scene in a day’s beating
in these jungles, and at the close of the beats one
may find oneself bemoaning one’s ill-luck, anathe-
matizing one’s bad shooting, or congratulating
oneself on having held straight and secured a fine
stag or buck of any one or more of them.
And of course there is always in these jungles,
and more especially in the grass jungles, the added
4 ‘
Antlers
spice of excitement in the knowledge that there is
an off-chance of our coming across ‘stripes’ or
‘spots,’ as the shikaring man _ affectionately
designates the two animals he ever most wishes
to meet—the tiger, Lord of the Jungles, and the
leopard or panther, wiliest and craftiest of animals.
But is it only the memory of the animals killed
or the sport enjoyed which grips us so fast as we
look back ? We think not!
Visions of the beautiful scenery, some of the most
beautiful in the world, amongst which it is pursued,
have added so much to its zest and enjoyment.
Up here in the North the climate at Christmas-
time (minus the Christmas rains, bien entendw)
could scarcely be beaten anywhere. The air is
sharp and keen, and the atmosphere of a most
wonderful brilliant crystal brightness. To the
north and east in the pure air rears up the giant
Himalayan Chain, the mountains scarcely ten
miles distant and looking as if one could throw
a biscuit on to them. At their feet rise the
tumbling mass of foot-hills, clothed in brilliant
green sal (Shorea robusta) forest ; whilst stretching
towards us from this green belt is a wilderness
of giant grass land interspersed with thickets and
copses of shisham (Dalbergia Sissoo) and khair
(Acacia Catechu), both now leafless. Tongues of
green sal forest run out from the main belt to the
north, whilst a dark green line behind us indicates
where the forest region recommences in the Siwalik
5
Jungle By-Ways in India
Hills. Running generally north and south and
cutting wide white scars through hill and plain
forest are the watercourses or vaos as they are
termed locally, which, from narrow ravines and
deep gorges in the mountains, broaden out into wide
stony river-beds as soon as the slope becomes more
level on leaving the hills. Save in the rains these
A Howdah Elephant.
are mostly dry, or have a small stream flowing down
one part of the wide bed. The rest is given over to
tall elephant grass patches and the aforesaid copses
—both affording a grand shelter to game of all sorts.
Thus in this ideal sportsmen’s paradise you may
beat on elephants or afoot through high forest or
tall elephant grass, or through dense brakes and
thickets of thorny trees and shrubs ; or again—best
6 «
Antlers
sport of all—stalk the old sambhar up on the crests
and saddle backs of the foot hills—a pastime you
will find it difficult to beat.
FROM THE HOWDAH AND PAD
There are many worse ways of seeing the jungle
than from the howdah or pad of an elephant—
preferably the latter when one is only intent on
a morning or evening stroll.
Personally from choice I prefer my own flat feet
and a good shikari guide, and by good I mean one
who will not treat one as a ‘ passenger ’ the whole
time till he places one in front of the beast to be
shot. One can do that kind of thing on the range
just as satisfactorily! I know there are men who
consider ‘shooting’ to consist of merely bowling
over the animal when they have been brought up
to it by their tracker. I prefer to think—and
really do think—that such men are the exceptions.
They do not fall within the category of shikari.
For a sportsman to be a true shikari he must take
a personal interest in the methods by which his
tracker is taking him up to the game, must en-
deavour to acquire the ‘jungle eye’ and take a
real interest in wood craft, and all that is under-
stood by our English term ‘ venery.’
And this knowledge and jungle lore can ever be
better acquired on one’s own feet than from the
howdah or pad of an elephant.
There are, however, extensive high grass jungles
7
Jungle By-Ways in India
in India, in Northern India and Assam, for in-
stance, where if one wishes to obtain sport it has
to be from the top of an elephant, and many of us
can look back to many pleasant hours passed on
the pad in company with a keen mahout and
staunch elephant.
At all times is the grass jungle and tree forest
beautiful under such conditions. At the end of
the monsoon, whilst the grass jungle is still very
high and dense, but few and very rapid glimpses
of the numerous animals it contains can be ob-
tained. But what a wonderful sight is this grass !
Each great clump of slender stems shoots up
from a centre and droops over in a graceful
curve at a height of some fifteen feet or more,
whilst straight up from their midst rear the beauti-
ful flower heads, a delicate nodding mass of pink
and yellow pendulous feathery tassels. Like some
vast and giant garden is the grass jungle at this
period and very beautiful to be out in. With life
it positively swarms and teems.
At every stride of the elephant, pea-fowl with
their gorgeous plumage, jungle-fowl, many of them
brilliantly coloured knowing old cocks, partridges,
grey and black, and quail of several kinds get up
and offer niost tempting shots.
Or again in the high forest the trees, so far as
their foliage goes, are seen at their best perhaps
after the long rains, whilst great creepers hang
down in giant festoons, flinging themselves from
8
SCENERY IN THE 840 BEDS IN THE SIWALIKS, NORTH INDIA
Antlers
tree to tree, and orchids and delicate ferns cling to
stem and branch ; and down below, the forest floor
is hidden by the dense matted undergrowth of the
rains, in which disports itself, safe at this season from
our gaze and rifle, the four-footed life of the forest.
There is something about these wanderings on
an elephant at all seasons of the year, and es-
pecially of the shooting year, which sends a thrill
through one as the mind looks back at them.
One sees the jungle with such a different eye
from the lofty perch, and learns to notice objects
and animal life which are quite lost to one whilst
on the ground.
Animals, too, are seen at such a different per-
spective from the pad and appear so very and
surprisingly small in the tall grass jungle.
As one sways slowly along, sitting, if on a pad,
up behind the mahout with legs straddled down
on either side, there is a rustle in the grass and
suddenly a herd of chitul go skipping away in
front, only their heads and backs and white scuts
appearing in the upper grass as they reach the
_ top of their bounds. Or a heavy rush proclaims
something larger, and ere the rifle is at the
shoulder a dark patch going at full tilt has ap-
peared and disappeared—a sambhar, frightened un-
fortunately and gone never to be seen again that
day. Farther on, a sudden chorus of grunts and
squeaks proclaims a sounder of pig and for a
moment the jungle appears alive with them, the
9
Jungle By-Ways in India
grass waves in frantic commotion, and the elephant,
hastily coiling his trunk, backs quickly and un-
evenly—for he loathes piggy in all his forms. Not
a sign can we see of one of them. They disappear
in a most mysterious fashion. Go forward and
ty
>
—— = = ae
———
A herd of Chitul go skipping away in the long grass.
beat them up, and you may hunt for half an hour
in a dense shrubby thicket of no particular size
into which you were certain that at least half the
sounder went, but not a sign will you see. It
is little short of astonishing, and has probably
puzzled many generations of us, how pig manage
10 e
Antlers
to disappear in this silent manner in grass or
copse jungle.
They go right away, and yet after the first rush
there is no gradual diminuendo of crashing bushes
or crackling grass which distinguishes the retreat
of most of our four-footed game. One may come
suddenly on an old boar or a sow with a baker’s
dozen of youngsters. For a moment all is turmoil
both below and above, for the elephant almost in-
variably proclaims his disgust and dissatisfaction
Wi —® yy Ms Ys
A chorus of grunts and squeaks proclaims a sounder of pig.
at the proceeding, often with a shrill trumpet (is it
the Mahomedan mahout, one wonders, who has
taught his elephant to hate the unclean ?), and
then silence and a total disappearance !
Farther on in a more open jungle we come upon
another herd of chitul, their brilliant fawn-
coloured skins with the prominent white spots
so harmonizing with their surrroundings that they
by no means stand out in the startling fashion one
might expect from having seen specimens in Zoos
or in books. As we approach, the herd take no
notice of the elephant save to glance up at and
watch it in curiosity as it passes, and the same is
II
Jungle By-Ways in India
the case with the four sambhar does with two
youngsters at heel whom we come upon soon after,
save that they edge slightly away at an angle as
we approach. There is no sign of fear, however, for
they do not look high enough to perceive us on its
back. The elephant is a thing they are accustomed
to meet in the jungles, which is his home as well as
theirs, and they appear to quite easily distinguish
between the noise he makes in swaying and rustling
and breaking his way through the forest or grass,
loud though it may be, and the much less loud but
blundering noise made in the long grass or over dry
leaves and twigs by the civilized man of the cities.
All the jungle denizens can ‘spot’ our ap-
proach a couple of hundred yards or more away,
unless we with patience and great trouble learn to
follow the example of the men born and bred to the
jungles. Take, for instance, the aboriginesin Central
India and the Gurkha as two examples. Either can
glide through the forest in almost as stealthy a
manner as the tiger and panther themselves.
These latter animals, by the way, might be come
across on an evening stroll on the elephant.
Some men’s luck is good in this respect. My own
has not been, save on two occasions to be related
elsewhere. Should these the most interesting of
wild life be thus met accidentally, if you with-
hold your fire you will not improbably learn a
great deal about their ways by watching them, for
the chances are they will take little notice of the
12
Antlers
elephant, and will not look up high enough to spot
you on its back.
In long grass you can have great sport and very
pretty shooting with the little hog deer, an animal
so like a sambhar en miniature. He will get up close
to the elephant and go jumping through the grass,
often breaking back and giving one a difficult shot
with one’s body screwed round at an angle. He is
a lover of the open tall grass areas, and has to be
sought there. As we shall see later, he can also be
stalked out on those lovely open grassy maidans
or savannahs which are to be found amid the sal
forests.
The little red barking deer or kakar, whose
presence is always swiftly and annoyingly pro-
claimed by a series of short sharp barks the
moment it is frightened, is come across in the tree
forest; he offers a small bull’s-eye for the rifle
and is by no means so easily shot from the pad as
the larger animals.
In our slow onward progress we come to a small
village footpath, and as the elephant puts her fore-
foot out towards the path a small hare who had
been squatting in his form under a grass tussock
jumps up and bolts along the path. We were lolling
easily in the front position behind the mahout, and
the jump the hathi gave nearly sent us out side-
ways from the great saddle. It is curious how a
mighty beast like an elephant, who will face tiger
with intrepidity and coolness, loathes small animals,
13
Jungle By-Ways in India
especially snappy dogs and hares and suchlike
small fry who, getting up at or playing around the
feet, upset for quite a time the equanimity and
serenity of its temper.
We are now approaching cultivated lands, and
so keep a look out for black buck. Have you ever
noticed what a strong instinctive dislike black
buck have for elephants ?
It is curious, but many mahouts will tell you
that it is a fact. I remember an occasion when on
several evenings in the course of a fortnight I tried
to approach a small herd of these little animals on
the elephant. A habit of theirs is to always live
in the same area or tract of country, usually quite
a small one, so that it is not difficult to find a herd
you have once marked down. Time after time the
tale was always the same. I arrived on the edge,
of the jungle to see the antelope going full speed
across the open cultivation beyond and well
beyond a decent range. The patch of jungle,
though a couple of miles long, was nowhere more
than 300-400 yards across and thinned out at the
end to about 50 yards breadth. The animals could
easily have broken out at the sides, but each even-
ing they kept in the forest until it ended, and then
went away’full tilt.
I changed my plan of campaign. One evening,
leaving the elephant to come through the jungle,
I took up my position on foot at the far edge of
the forest. Sure enough, on three evenings out of
14
Antlers
five the herd came out in front of me. The
elephant made but little noise as she slowly
walked through the patch of forest—quite open
forest and grass at this end—but it was enough
to bring out the herd, so little do they like
elephants. There was a decent head amongst them,
but I nearly lost it. It was on the fifth evening
that I made up my mind to fire at him, as I had
watched their manceuvres sufficiently for my
purpose. That evening, instead of bounding
out of the jungle with those astonishing leaps of
theirs within 15-20 yards of me, they came out
at the extreme far edge of the forest, and the buck
was 200 yards away before I got a sight on to him.
He went away another 300 at racing pace, and
then dropped suddenly in a field. The cultiva-
tion was quite open and flat, with no hedges or
grass, and we watched him the whole way. It
was a lucky shot at the distance.
Both howdah and pad-work require some
practice, for one has to help the mahout a good
deal in warding off branches and in keeping an eye
on the look out for thorny brakes, which are apt
otherwise to claw and scratch the face and hands
and catch and rip up the clothing. If sitting
sideways on a pad, one has to look after one’s
feet, for an elephant is apt to forget that its rider’s
feet project beyond the pad, and it is no joke having
your foot squashed between the pad and a tree
trunk. Great circumspection has also ever to be
15
Jungle By-Ways in India
paid to the rifles. One will probably be at full
cock, and carelessness in this respect in the howdah
or on the pad is unpardonable.
Shooting from the howdah or pad is also an
art which has to be learnt, as the novice will find
that he is always apt to fire over the animal at
first. In snap-shooting one has also to instinctively
allow for the fact that the elephant is on the
move.
Minor worries on an elephant, which sometimes
assume the proportions of major ones, are due to
insects. In Northern India jungles you must
always keep in remembrance the big bee (Apis
dorsata). It is not uncommon for the elephant to
blunder in to one of the great combs attached by
this bee to the under side of some branch or in-
clined tree stem in a dense thicket. The bees will
be out on you like a knife when disturbed in this
fashion, and nothing but immediately rolling your-
self up in a blanket, which it is wise to carry, will
avoid bad stings.
That vicious brute the red ant (Gcophylla
smaragdina) has also to be borne in mind. He
builds nests made of green leaves stuck together
up in the trees, and one is apt to knock against
them and get a shower of ants over the exposed
portions of the body before one has realized what
is the matter. A clean and hurried sirip is then
the only way to get rid of them, and this must
be done promptly, for their nips are most painful.
16
\ wv
THE FIERCE RED ANT AND HIS HOME OF LEAVES
Op
COMB OF THE LARGE INDIAN BEE ATTACHED TO A BRANCH
Antlers
But with the disagreeable there is also much of
interest living up above in the leaf canopy.
Have you ever paid any attention to the life
which has its being up there ?
Birds there are in numbers. The nesting
places in old dry tree stems of the brightly-
coloured, shy woodpecker can sometimes be exam-
ined from your high seat, and the ways of those
curious, ungainly-looking crossbills.
Insect life too is plentiful, and quite apart from
that commonly met with down below. Weird-
shaped and curiously coloured caterpillars you
will meet ; queer mantis and stick insects also, if
you keep your eyes open ; moths of shades approxi-
mating almost exactly to the bark, twig, or leaf
upon which they are sitting, and tree-bugs and
beetles, whose colouring and shapes are legion ;
and last, but not least, preying upon this infinite
variety of life, lizards of all sorts and sizes.
Snakes too! You may come across a few
species who live in trees and bushes, such as the
beautiful green bamboo snake.
on RIG.
- \ eam ere i br a
ata ty WAY { i} ; /
act go to i : y ty
VA
Nil rn Os co.
CHAPTER II
Beating in Northern India jungles—How to beat—Off for a day’s
beating—A blue bull—Shooting before the beat starts—The
beat commences—A herd of Chitul—Pig—Wiliness of the old
‘_peacock—Jungle fowl—A sambhar stag—Wariness of the old
stags—The stag breaks out—Death of the stag—The lunch
carrier—Social amenities.
BEATING IN NORTHERN INDIA JUNGLES
N the absence of a sufficiency of elephants,
that ever difficult question, the greater
portion of our Christmas shoot will be
devoted to beating the patches of forest
and long grass in a systematic sequence. A
great deal depends upon the way this is done, and
a knowledge of the country and of the habits
18
Antlers
of the game are absolutely essential if success is
to be attained. In every jungle there are certain
points to which animals will break naturally, others
to which they may be made to break by good
beating, whilst there are some directions in which
no amount of good beating will succeed in bringing
the game up to the guns. One and all will break
back through the beaters. Once a little jungle
lore has been assimilated, this becomes so evident
that it is a source of never-ending surprise to see
the number of times this simple law is violated.
Some strong-minded but utterly ignorant sports-
man (save the mark !) will insist, perhaps because
his seniority gives him the power to claim the
right, on running the whole of the beats himself,
with the only too natural result of a practically
blank bag.
What memories those days, beating in the
beautiful jungles of Northern India, conjure up!
After a substantial chotahazri, or breakfast, we
set off in the brilliant crystal brightness of the
early dawn. The air is keen and piercing and like
champagne, blowing straight from the snows
on the great Himalayan Chain which towers up so
near in the clear atmosphere.
The first beat is some two miles away, and before
climbing up on to the pad-elephant or into the
dog-cart or on to the pony, one pulls on one’s
thickest English sweater, and may add a motor-
coat if the elephant or dog-cart is our fate,
19
Jungle By-Ways in India
And even then, whilst swaying along on the
elephant to the beat, you will find it chilly enough.
And cold will it be for the first hour or two,
sitting in one’s stand and silently waiting for
what fortune will send. Not till the sun has
topped yonder mountain-spur at about 8.30 shall
we get much warmth into our bones. From then
onwards, however, till its decline in the soft, rosy,
pale-tinted sky of the cold-weather evening, the
temperature will be glorious—the finest that can
be found anywhere.
One sits silently in the broad, stony river-
bed, in which the guns have been placed at
intervals of about I00 yards or so apart, and
patiently awaits the distant voices of the beaters
to commence the business of the day. Often
during these waits in the early morning may
be seen evidences of the game one has come in
search of.
At times a rattle of stones or soft pattering
behind proclaims that, all unbeaten, game is
afoot in the forest and is on the trek back to
some well-known, shady, secluded retreat, in
which the warm hours of the winter day will be
passed in a lazy, somnolent peace. Without a
movement of the body the head is slowly turned
to see what is happening, and there in Indian file
away to the right is a small herd of chitul. Follow-
ing one another in a somewhat straggling Indian
file, they come out of the jungle, though each will
20
Antlers
usually walk exactly in the tracks of its pre-
decessor. As is often the case at this time of the
year the herd consists entirely of does, and they
trot across the vao bed one behind the other, with
scarce a glance to either side save only the leader—
an old experienced doe, who keeps her eyes on
the gui vive whilst in such an open exposed
position.
Closely following this herd we saw the other day a
nilgai, or blue bull, come out of the jungle behind
and go lumbering across the stony nullah bed with
that peculiar, awkward, shambling stride these
animals possess, shuffling over the stones and mak-
ing asmuch noise asa herd of chitul would have pro-
duced. He was a young buck, and bang went a
rifle lower down the nullah. The animal plunged
forward and galloped into the jungle. A near
thing, for the bullet could have only just cleared
the extraordinary high withers.
Shooting in this fashion, by the way, before a
beat has started is not to be recommended, es-
pecially in the case of the novice. Everything will
be new and strange to him at that period of his
novitiate into Indian sport, and in attempting to
bag what may prove to be a small trophy, he may
send back something far better which would have
come out in front of him had he waited for the
beat to commence.
As one blows on one’s fingers to keep up the
circulation and watches a pair of noisy cross-bills
21
Jungle By-Ways in India
winging their way overhead to the forest and
some fruit-bearing tree, with the short flaps of the
wings these birds affect, a faint distant sound is
heard. The beaters have started! Looking to
see that rifles and shot-guns are handy, one
watches the strip of forest some sixty yards to the
front. Presently there is a pattering of leaves to
be heard. It ceases, recommences, and then
ceases again. Although unable to see the animal,
we know that it is somewhere on the edge of the
forest, narrowly scanning the open nullah in front
of it for possible enemies. There is a small barri-
cade of bushes up in front; but as a matter of
fact one could sit out in the open nullah amongst
the stones just as safely, provided one is dressed in
khaki and keeps absolutely still. This is the golden
rule of the jungle. You have always to remember
that the slightest movement immediately catches
the eye of the jungle denizen, ever on the look out
for danger, and danger from other moving animals.
We patiently wait, and at last the animal makes
up its mind and appears—a chitul only, and others
are behind her. There is a small stag in the herd,
who files out of the jungle near the end of the line,
22 :
Antlers
but nothing worth shooting. We watch them as
they carefully and daintily pick their way across the
stony nullah bed, going slowly at first, and then
quickening up to a trot as they get half-way
across and realize how exposed they are. These
wide nullah beds often have areas of tall grass in
them, and this makes it necessary to exercise a nice
discrimination in firing at the right moment and
leaving sufficient time to get in the second barrel
at the animal, going fast as he almost certainly
will, if you miss or only wound him with your first.
Before the chitul have disappeared, a heavy
rustling and rattling away to the right, and out
plunges a black mass and trots across the 7ao,
followed by other black masses of various sizes.
Wild boar or piggy these. Wait and watch a bit!
There are some big ones in the nullah already,
but there is probably a bigger one yet to come.
Yes, there he is, nearly at the tail of the sounder,
and a monster he is—fit object for a wild gallop
with a spear in the hand. Although not near a
good riding country for pig, one does not wish to
fire at piggy. He is practically only shot to pro-
vide meat as a treat for the Gurkha orderlies and
the low caste villager, all of whom will eat them-
selves sick once they get achance at that dainty of
dainties—pig’s flesh.
The sounder passes with much indignant squeak-
ing and grunting at being disturbed in this un-
seemly fashion, leaving their tracks deeply im-
23
Tracks of the Wild Boar.
Antlers
printed in the sandy parts of the nullah. These
tracks are easily distinguishable from other jungle
animals, as may be seen here. Then silence for a
time.
Bang! bang! down the line, and one turns to
see some chitul stags go off into the jungle. One
has not seen whether one is down, but it is probable,
as at this season the stags are to be found in small
parties together.
A light but faintly-heard pattering in the grassy
patch situated in the nullah bed to the right.
Silence! and then more pattering. Something is
on the move, and something very loth to break.
We watch, and strive to pierce the grassy recesses.
Suddenly right at the ground level a head ap-
pears.
An old peacock—cunningest of all his tribe!
He gazes anxiously all round out of his bright eye
and withdraws his head ; thrusts it forward again,
makes up his mind and runs quickly out for a few
paces. Then stands and stretches out his old neck,
and the little beady eye gazes around with a
piercing scrutiny. He does not like the noise
behind, and he likes less the quiet in front!
Suddenly over his head rockets an old cock jungle
fowl, his wicked little red eye agleam, his back
and wing-feathers glinting like burnished gold and
copper, and his long metallic green tail-feathers
‘streaming out behind with the pace he is going.
This decides our friend the shallyer. The spot is
25
Jungle By-Ways in India
not good enough for his health any longer. Down
goes his head and he bolts part of the way across
the open, and with a tremendous ‘ swish, swish,’ of
his powerful wings he leaps into the air, and with
his glorious peacock train flung in streamers to the
Suddenly at ground-level a head appears.
breeze he is off in the wake of the old cock. Two
brown shadows flick past on soaring wing—jungle
hens—and all is quiet again, save that the noise of
the beaters has now arisen to a prolonged howl.
A crash in the jungle in front and then silence.
Another rush up to our right in the forest and again
a pause. Something heavy there. ‘Sambhar’ the
orderly mutters, and we nod. Will he break in
26
Antlers
front of us though, or go up to the rifles on our
right or left? Many of us have passed these
anxious moments, for sambhar are kittle cattle!
Often one will be on the point of breaking out, or
even does just partly emerge from the forest, when
his heart misgives him. Turning swiftly, he
charges back towards the beaters, suddenly
realizes that he is going from the frying-pan into
the fire, swerves and plunges madly down through
the forest parallel to the edge of the jungle, and
then finally, hardening his heart, as the sound of
the beaters strikes his ear more loudly, comes out
and goes bounding across the open. Sometimes
the loss of a shot at him has been entirely our own
fault. He has come quietly down in front of the
beaters to the edge of the forest. We may have
heard a tiny twig or two crack, but as dead silence
has ensued we have concluded that there is nothing
in front of us, and certainly not a thing the size of
asambhar. But he has been there all the time, just
inside the forest watching and listening. We have
shifted slightly perhaps, or moved the rifle which
has glinted in the sunshine. The sambhar’s quick
eye has caught the glint, and his suspicions are
aroused. Nothing will now make him break at
that point, and our chance is gone. On other
occasions it is simply pure fear and the dislike
to breaking into the open of a wide nullah which
will make him turn. Such we fain hope is the
cause on this occasion, for he breaks away below
27
Jungle By-Ways in India
us, giving a fine galloping shot to the third rifle,
who bowls him over.
A fine heavy beast, but the horns are but thirty-
four, for the old big heads nowadays do not appear
to frequent the maidan forest, but get away into the
broken hilly country, where they must be followed
and stalked down on foot—and a rare good sport
this stalking is, as we shall see later, for one who is
sound in wind and limb.
Plunges madly through the forest.
The breaking of the sambhar brings the beat to an
end, for, it being early in the day, we are not firing
at birds, and the pea-fowl, jungle-fowl and
partridges which come out at the end of the beat
are allowed to go scathless. They form pretty
shooting towards the end of the day, especially if
numerous, and the gun only takes the more diffi-
cult birds. And an old cock jungle-fowl, coming
over the guns with a breeze behind him, takes
some shooting, as most of us know!
A couple more beats take place before lunch,
with varied fortune, but much of interest to the
natural history lover and he who cares to watch
28 7
THE INDIAN SPORTSMEN’S LUNCH CARRIER
PAD ELEPHANT READY FOR AN EVENING STROLL
Antlers
the ways of the jungle beasts in their own homes.
In one of them excitement runs high, for a panther
was reported in the beat, and ‘spots’ is ever
fondly looked out for, the more so that he is so
terribly difficult to mark down. He can lie up
under a stone or leaf almost, so wonderfully does
his colouring and the peculiar manner he crouches
when lying low assimilate to his environment.
‘Spots’ broke back this time, several excited
beaters saying that they had witnessed the
manceuvre—whether true or no, it is impossible
to say, since the men imagine all sorts of things
when they are told that there is a tiger or leopard
in the beat.
Detailing our experiences, we make for the
luncheon rendezvous, where we find our lunch-
basket carrier, who has also brought out a lady or
two from the camp without any extra incon-
venience, standing beneath a shady pipal tree,
keeping off the flies by flicking himself with a
branch torn from the tree; a branch the weight
of which any one of us would have been sorry to
have had to lift even. He and his mahout are the
picture of somnolent ease—both absolutely typical
of the East !
We throw ourselves down, and the glint and
gleam of foam-topped glasses calls forth sighs of
general content with life under these conditions !
CHAPTER III
Barasingha and chitul—Barasingha does—Barasingha, chitul, and
sambhar stags—A herd of barasingha breaking cover to graze—
The old stag leads the way—Unrest of does—The herd on the
alert—The alarm—A good barasingha stag—Size of horns—Tracks
of barasingha—The midday siesta—Barking of trees by stags—
The silent forest pool—A glorious stag—Chitul—Beauty of the
stag— Habits—Size of horns—Chitul tracks—Wariness of the old
stag—A herd leaving the forest to graze—Patient wait for the
stag—Curiosity of does—The stag appears— Darkness approaches
—The stag grows curious— Death of the stag.
BARASINGHA AND CHITUL
AVE you ever noticed the curious
appearance of barasingha does at a
distance ? When walking they hold
their heads stretched out with the
ears held back and hanging low, the hind-quarters
sloping upwards and outwards to a point, and the
scut extended, giving them the appearance of
30
Antlers
giant goats. The stags have naturally a great
resemblance to sambhar stags, and at a distance
it is always a question, since the barasingha
comes in size between the sambhar and the
chitul, whether the does are chitul or barasingha,
and whether the stags are sambhar or barasingha.
A close inspection at distances of 200 yards or so,
or closer in long grass, is always necessary to
determine the question.
It is most interesting to watch a herd of these
animals troop out of the forest at sundown into
the open grass lands. One beautiful, though hot,
evening in April in the Central Provinces, I
was slowly and silently strolling up a little grass
maidan which ran up into an isthmus between the
green walls of the sal forest in front of me, when
I heard a noisy crackling of dead leaves in the
forest to my right front. I sat down on a rock,
kept perfectly steady, and watched. )
petro WA
Vai tn? “py - 2 «
I missed the buck after all.
fw
--
out at once from a piece of forest through which
an elephant is beating. On many occasions I
have put in an elephant at one end of a small
piece of forest and stationed myself at the other.
Whilst the elephant is to be heard still at some
distance, swaying along in the forest and quite
beyond view, the black buck will come to the edge
and be off across the open country. It is a curious
trait, since animals living in these localities
must often see elephants, and we all know that
on an elephant one can often get up within a
few yards of a sambhar or chitul with impunity.
182 *
Horns
The tracks of buck are larger and more pointed
than those of the chink or the 4-horned antelope,
and, of course, infinitely smaller than those of the
nilgai, the only other Indian Antelope.
/'\ ¢
i a ss 5
Hwy M2
Wi, yl
=
Black Buck 4.
Tracks of buck.
THE BLUE BULL OR NILGAI
Of all the Indian antelope, the heavy, clumsy-
built nilgai (Portax pictus) or blue bull, as he is
popularly called owing to his peculiar colouring,
is one of the most curious. Very few points of
either. the antelope or deer tribe has he about him.
As one watches him trot with his awkward,
183
Jungle By-Ways in India
shambling gait, or gallop in a lollopy, lumbering
fashion across the plain, the animal he has the
greatest similarity to is a coarse Galloway pony.
In some ways a bull is a handsome beast,
with his well-shaped body and clean legs, but his
extraordinary high wither spoils his appearance.
He has no trophy, since the small pair of black
horns the head carries are only some 8-9 inches
in length. Baldwin mentions a pair of some Io}
inches, which would constitute a record.
The does are light-coloured, but an old bull
(they are termed ‘ bull,’ though strictly speaking
they should be called ‘ buck’) is almost blue-black
in colour, from whence he gets his name of the
blue bull. His coat shines like satin, and as he
stands in the sunlight with clean legs planted well
apart and head held well up on the look out for
danger, there is something good and clean bred
about him which rather fetches the lover of horses.
It is only when he commences to move that
disillusionment sets in, and one wonders how
such an apparently well set-up beast can possibly
have such awkward paces.
It is probably his curious resemblance to a horse
that makes one reluctant to raise a rifle against
this timid animal, for up to a certain point they
are very timid and shy. This is perhaps due
to the fact that they inhabit open grassy plains
interspersed with patches of scrub forest and
cultivation.
a
134
Horns
In fact, I think it would be a pity to shoot the
creatures at all were it not for the very great
harm they do to the crops of the villagers. Also,
a young blue bull furnishes a fine supply of meat
for the camp, and affords the villagers a good
Square meal at the same time, and this to the
shikari encamped next to a village is always a
consideration ; for the first golden rule for the
sportsman to bear in mind is that he will get far
more sport and a much greater enjoyment out
of it if he has the villagers amongst whom he is
living on his side, than if they are against him or
merely lukewarm.
The villagers naturally know all about the
animals in their neighbourhood. It would be
curious indeed if they did not. Spend a fortnight
or a month at one camp on end, and you will
soon find that you know a good deal about the
surrounding neighbourhood and something about
the animals who inhabit it and their abundance.
Picture to yourself living in that place and
constantly, when engaged in your ordinary avoca-
tions, coming across the jungle denizens. It
would not be surprising if you were able to tell a
visitor what he might expect in the shooting-line.
What were the beats of the local tigers and
leopards, where the chitul were to be found,
and the localities where there was the best chance
of finding a big sambhar, and where the nilgai
and black buck grazed in the mornings and
185
Jungle By-Ways in India
evenings, and where they lay up during the heat
of the day.
The local villager possesses all this information.
But the villager knowing, and the villager giving
the Sahib khubbar, are two very different things.
Therefore, if you want sport, treat the villager
well, and do him well, and you will find he will
mostly play up to you.
I remember going out one morning at dawn
with the express object of endeavouring to bag a
blue bull, as meat was badly wanted in the camp,
and the only village near me had sent in a depu-
tation asking the Sahib to rid them of one of
the destroyers of their crops, and at the same
time give them a ‘ belly-full,’ as they expressed
it, of meat. As meat was required, and I did not
wish to fire a shot in the forest, as I was on the
look out for a bison or a good sambhar head, I
acquiesced to the wish of the deputation.
My guide took me in an almost undeviating
line for the spot where he told me we should be
certain to find a herd of does, with perhaps a bull.
It was a beautiful morning towards the end of
April in Central India. Already it should have
been very hot, but a curiously unusual season had
been experienced with heavy rain for several
days in the middle of the month, and this had
brought down the temperature in a most re-
markable manner. But more than this, the rain
coming down on a soil which was already burnt
186 7
Horns
to a fiery heat had caused the herbaceous seeds
to literally ‘jump,’ with the result that the grassy
glades in the forest and the open maidans and
savannahs gleamed like wonderful green emerald
jewels, with the brilliant tints of the young grass
shoots everywhere sprouting in the dank heat,
resulting from the sun and moisture combined.
The rain had caused the animals to disperse
somewhat in the jungles, since water could now
be found everywhere. Tarns and lakes and tanks
and babbling brooks and dry, stony-bedded
nullahs had all filled up to an unusual height
for the season—the middle of the hot weather.
Perhaps more curious still, heavy dews were
now experienced every night, where but a short
time previously one had gone out before dawn to
find every leaf and dry stick crackling under foot.
So on the morning which I have in my mind
the atmosphere was as clear as crystal, and almost
was there a sharp touch in the air. As the level
rays of the sun shot over a low distant ridge,
plain and hill-top shimmered softly in the ambient
pink light, and the dew shone in sparkling drops
like miniature jewels on leaf and grass tip. A
shimmering yellow-pink haze hung over the
country, and out in the grass areas the dhak
(Butea frondosa) trees—the flame of the forest—
now in full flower, dashed vivid crimson patches
across the soft pinks and yellows and vivid greens
of the landscape.
187
Jungle By-Ways in India
As one strode along behind the eager villager,
who already in his mind’s eye saw one of his
enemies laid low and hot steaks for his evening
meal, one thought that these shikar periods
made life in India good at times to live.
Suddenly we arrive at the edge of a small
cliff. The drop to the river-bed was some
twenty feet, the river, one of quite considerable
size for this part of the world, being some 30
yards across. The purling limpid blue stream
which should have been trickling along its sinuous
course down the semi-rocky, semi-sandy mud bed
was there no longer, and in its place a dirty yellow-
coloured flood now rolled. A ford had to be care-
fully sought, as it was in a dip on the top of the
opposite cliff between its edge and the forest
beyond that we hoped to find the blue bull.
Proceeding up stream, we at length found a
fordable place and crossed in silence. Climbing
up the opposite bank, we crawled quietly up the
gentle rise and looked over into the dip.
Yes, there were the blue bull right enough,
but all light bluish-grey in colour—does only.
There were five of them, two old beasts, and three
of younger and intermediate ages, one being but a
large calf.
Looking away to the right, I saw the bull,
and a big bull he was, dark blue-black in colour,
with his glossy coat glistening in the early rays of
the sunlight, and in places sparkling with dew-
188 ‘
Horns
drops. They were all grazing, and had I not
naturally wished to bag the bull, I could have
dropped one of the cows in her tracks.
The bull was, as I have said, to the right,
and it became necessary to execute a movement
to the rear if I wanted to get a shot at him.
How I longed for a pony to ride the fine old
fellow down instead of thus tamely plugging
him! The country, though black cotton soil,
was quite rideable if one did not mind chancing
a spill or two, and provided one goes hard
enough at first so as to press and pump the
animal, he is fairly easily ridden to a stand-
still. I was thinking this as, after executing a
flanking movement, I cautiously pushed my head
up over the rise. Yes, there was the bull, but
he was on the gut vive.
Why, I could not say. And there was a cow
advancing towards the top of the dip; she
must have moved forward after I had started on
my flank movement. Perhaps that seventh
sense which is never asleep in the wild animal
troubled her. Whatever the cause, I was too
late! The cow, before topping the ridge, squealed,
and the old bull was off into the patch of forest
before I could get anything like a sight upon him.
The cows went away to the left, and in a
few strides dropped into their lumbering trot
and fell into single file, which appears to be an
invariable habit of theirs. In a sauve qui peut
189
Jungle By-Ways in India
each one goes off with a blind rush, but it does not
last long or far, and they will be shortly seen to
close up and drop into single file in a most auto-
matic manner. I watched the does do this as
they followed the river bank up stream for some
Pere
tee ee,
Tracks of nilgai.
distance, and then, swerving across the plain
to the east, topped a rise and disappeared.
The villager wished me to go after them, but I
was obdurate. I had started out on this quest
with a kind of feeling that I was going into
Windsor Park to shoot one of the deer there.
It was not turning out so easy a game as I had
1990 "
Horns
imagined, but I thought the least I could do was to
stick to the bull.
It was but another instance of the many that
the shikari has to experience before he learns
thoroughly the golden rule, never despise your
game whatever he may be so long as he comes
under the designation fere nature. I had met and
shot blue bull many times before, but I discovered
that I had still something to learn.
We followed the bull’s tracks, long rather
narrow elliptical impressions plainly discernible
in the soft soil, slowly through the patch of
forest and out into the grassy plain beyond,
down into the river-bed, which made a loop
here, and down this for some distance. He
had soon slowed down into the shambling trot
and then into a walk. The river-bed, with its
heavy, deep, sandy mud, was bad walking, but
we pursued our way down for about half a mile,
and then the tracks went up a natural animal-
run into the grass land again. I looked round,
but could see nothing! I felt sure that the
bull must be somewhere quite close. At the rate
he had been going latterly he could not have gone
far. Again I looked and searched the whole area
in front of me, to my front and left and right.
No! I could see no trace of any animal on the
open grass land which lay spread before my eyes,
much less of such a large beast as a blue bull, as
my eye swept slowly round until it had nearly
191
Jungle By-Ways in India
reached the cliff edge to my right. I was about
to give it up and turn to the shikari behind,
when —suddenly a flicker. I looked. Yes!
There was the bull standing beneath a twisted
mimosa tree, with the flickering sun shadows
on his back—watching me.
It is wonderful how a beast of this size can
hide itself practically in the open by instinctively
taking up such a position as to make it seem
part and parcel of its environment. Here beneath
this feathery foliaged tree, with the light and
shadow playing upon it, the bull to the casual
glance was invisible.
I did not wait this time, but sighting on the
shoulder, put a bullet through his heart.
The rest I left to the men. I do not like shoot-
ing blue bull, as I have said. It is too like shoot-
ing a pony!
CHAPTER V
The four-horned antelope—Habits—Tracks—Head scarcely a trophy
—The chinkara or ravine deer—Buck and does horned—Habits
and distribution—Lives in desert tracts—Stalking—A midday
stalk—Fascination of the desert—Chink tracks—A morning’s
stalk—A curious desert beetle—The greater bustard—Death of
the buck.
THE FOUR-HORNED ANTELOPE
PRETTY little creature is the four-horned
antelope, pretty and daintily made,
though he cannot vie in beauty with
his cousin, the black buck of the open
country, or the chinkara of the sandy deserts.
Although so lightly built, his movements are
much more like the barking deer, though not so
heavy and awkward. Still, for his size and make,
it is surprising how heavy afoot he is.
You put him up in grass jungle, and watch him
ro) 193
Jungle By-Ways in India
go bounding away through the grass. He goes
away in bounds and leaps, it is true; but they are
Four ~herned Ontalope. 4 i
Q
Tracks of the four-horned antelope.
heavy, almost ungainly ones, in which one misses
the airy grace and lightness of the black buck.
194 €
Horns
The little four-horned antelope is a frequenter
of grass jungles, being found out in the grass where
the savannahs are interspersed with forest areas,
only returning to the shade of the forest about
midday in the hot weather. Though it is not un-
common to find them out in the open, lying up in
a small nullah or ravine during the day. Their
tracks are dainty little impressions resembling to
some extent those of the chinkara.
They are by no means so shy, or else do not
possess the same quick instinct and sense of hear-
ing and smell of the other deer, for it is com-
paratively easy to get near them, and, in fact,
it is not uncommon to put them up at one’s feet.
The head is, of course, of small size, and scarcely
a trophy. The four horns are placed in pairs, the
shorter in front ; the latter are very small, being
as often as not mere knobs, whilst the larger ones
are placed behind, and may be as much as 3 or 4
inches in length. Height 25 inches, weight 43 lbs.
THE CHINKARA OR RAVINE DEER
The little ‘ chink,’ as he is familiarly known to
sportsmen, the chinkara, Indian gazelle, or ravine
deer (Gazella bennettt), is a most graceful little
antelope, and runs the black buck close in points
of beauty. He is, however, much smaller than
the black, and his horns in comparison to those of
the latter are small. They are, however, by no
means ungraceful, and a well-mounted head has
195
Jungle By-Ways in India
a great deal of beauty in it, although a decent horn
with its handsome rings will not measure more
than 13-14 inches in length, and forms a delicate
and beautiful little trophy.
Both the males and females are horned, unlike the
black buck, where the female is hornless, except in
the case of a freak. The horns of the buck are
straight, and have usually about fifteen or sixteen
ringsin them. The horns of the female are ringless.
A record head of 15 inches comes from Raj-
putana. The average horn measurement may be
taken at g inches.
The Indian gazelle is light chestnut in colour
above, both males and females, the sides, but-
tocks, chin, breast, and lower parts being white,
the tail black, and knees dark brown. The face is
dark rufous, with a white streak down it.
The little chink is widely distributed, though
perhaps not so generally as the black buck. He
is to be found from south of the Kistna in Madras
right up into the North-West, and extending into
the plains of Baluchistan. Unlike the black buck,
however, it is seldom found near cultivation, or on
alluvial lands. Its habitat par excellence is the
desert tracts of the country, where it is to be found
in small parties in ravines and broken ground, or
out in the sandy desert amongst the sand-hills,
where it feeds upon the coarse herbage or on the
leaves of the desert shrubs. He is, perhaps, par-
ticularly abundant in the great desert tracts of
196 .
Horns
Central India, Sind, and Rajputana. This little
antelope is said never to drink.
You will find that when stalking him, although
he is not particularly shy or wary, he exhibits a
curious restlessness, always moving on, and when
really startled goes off like the wind in the beauti-
ful leaps and bounds affected by the gazelles.
A chinkara buck.
This restlessness is the chief difficulty to be faced
in stalking him—this and the fact that his colour-
ing is so near to that of the desert sand and his
natural surroundings, that he becomes exceed-
ingly difficult to ‘pick up’ when he has gone
anything over 100 yards; and it is a common
thing for a herd of these little antelope to run
clean out of sight, simply and solely due to the
fact of their colouring so closely resembling that
of their surroundings.
197
Jungle By-Ways in India
The experience one learns after a few fruitless
stalks after this dainty little animal, is to aim and
fire quickly once one has got within reasonable
distance of a shot proving effective.
When out on treks in the desert tracks of the
country, whether on duty or pleasure, a few hours
after gazelle are well repaid, since the flesh is
most excellent eating; the weight of a buck is
some 50 lbs., the animal standing some 26 inches
at the shoulder, whilst a doe weighs about Io lbs.
less.
One can look back to many pleasant hours
spent stalking these graceful antelope, and though
you might think that each day or each stalk after
them would be more or less similar to one another,
yet they are not. I do not think I have ever had
two stalks alike in my life, and therein lies the
fascination of stalking, one of the best forms of
shooting in existence. Incidents arise, constantly
arise, trivial in themselves perhaps at the time of
meeting them, but how often does one look back
to some one or more of those trivial incidents and
reflect that such and such a one in all probability
cost one the loss of a fine head or a fine pelt.
Therein lies the fascination of the whole game,
and it is he who learns to treat each little incident
arising during a stalk as of supreme importance
who will have the greatest success.
It was a hot morning in May in the sandy
desert plains of Baluchistan that I made my first
198
HEAD AND ITORNS oF
NILGAT OR
BLUE
Pike
BULL
THE BLACK BUCK
HORNS OF 4-HORNED
ANTELOPE
HEAD OF BUCK 4-HORNED
ANTELOPE
Horns
acquaintance with chink. Well do I remember
the occasion. I had just come off a long tonga
journey, arriving at a dak bungalow about mid-
day. A tub and breakfast was what I had in my
mind’s eye. The dak bungalow Khansammah,
however, who had but one wretched murghi in
the place, as Isubsequently discovered, had another
programme in store for me.
‘Has the Protector of the Poor got a rifle with
him ?’ he inquired. ‘ Yes, he has,’ was the answer ;
a rifle which, according to the orderly, had killed
every known animal, from the shaitan of a man-
eating tiger to the gorgeous plumaged peacock (hit
by the luckiest of flukes).
“Will the Sahib shoot a chink ?’ The Sahib
considered. Frizzling hot was it outside, and the
hot wind was just commencing to blow. In-
vitingly cool was it in the darkened, even if very
dirty, dak bungalow; but the temptation to see,
if not shoot, a chink proved too strong, and we
sallied forth.
Phew! it was hot as we plodded across the
sandy plain towards a small depression with a
low sand-hill this side of it, where my guide,
one of the dirty khits or masalchis of the bungalow,
told me we should find the gazelle.
I was ploughing my way through the sand,
sweeping the plain every now and then ahead
of me, when suddenly the man in front, with an
exclamation, stopped and pointed to my right. I
199
Jungle By-Ways in India
looked. There, scarcely 40 yards away, were a
number of small yellowish red antelope on the
move, some looking round as they edged slowly off.
I looked hard at them. Yes, I could see the small
horns on several of the antelope. But how small
they looked, and how difficult to see against the
yellow sand. Instead of dropping and firing at
once, I followed slowly, hoping to get ashot against
the skyline. Now, as the herd disappeared over a
small sand-hillock, I ran crouching over the sand,
and then warily crawled to the top of the hill.
Sixty yards only I estimated, and I sighted on the
biggest buck. Even as I was about to press the
trigger the buck moved forward, and after
crawling and creeping some 30 yards, the animals
again went off at a smart canter. I had gone
some two miles or more in this fashion ; the heat
was terrific. my temper and patience gave out,
and I risked a long shot—and missed. And so
a hot tramp in a fiery wind back to the bunga-
low, vowing I would have a buck that evening.
I went out, but saw none.
It is curious the wonderful fascination the
desert has for some men. Whether it be the
peculiar feeling of aloofness from the world and
abodes of man which invades one when amidst
those billowy oceans of sand, or the great silence
which almost makes itself felt, or the wonderful
charm of the colouring, the hard yellows and reds
and browns reduced and toned to the softest
200 ss
Horns
and most bewildering of shades as the sun sinks to
the horizon. I know not which of these factors
is responsible, or whether it is a blending of them
all; but the fascination is there, and once felt
calls to one ever afterwards.
In the barren wild sandy plains of Baluchistan,
encircled and shut in by rugged and precipitous
hills and mountains, their crests cut up into a
thousand fantastic and bizarre shapes, one has
often paused in amazement at the almost incredi-
ble colouring taken on by rock and sand in the
early morning or late evening light. Golden yellow
and brilliant crimson, vivid purple and _ bright
brown-blue, red and orange, all mingle together
in one chaotic riotous feast of colour, whilst
as the sun sinks lower the desert itself runs into
a sea of blood so startlingly and cruelly vivid as
to leave one paralysed at the thoughts it conjures.
The golden rim drops below the rocky crest and
the scene shuts down abruptly from an indescrib-
able undreamt-of mass of wild colouring to dark,
cold, forbidding greys and blues and blacks, with
a grey-white ribbon in the foreground, and night
is here.
The tracks left by chink in the sand are easy
to recognize once they have been examined care-
fully. To my mind the only other animal they
might be confused with is the 4-horned antelope.
Truly they are tantalizing little animals, these
gazelle, at times.
201
Jungle By-Ways in India
I spent one ever-memorable hot and interesting
morning after what I conceived to be a record
tore
IY
e (\A
Chinkora or Indian Gayelle -£-
Tracks of chinkara.
head. The head was not a record, but, as a result
of the stalk, my mind became stored with a
considerable amount of jungle or desert lore, both
202
Horns
on the habits of the chink and also on those of
other things.
Do you know those queer black bulbous-looking
beetles one meets so commonly in desert areas, all
body with a small head and like unto nothing quite
that one meets on cultivated tracts or in forest
areas? Common to all desert tracts are they,
for they are to be found upon the veldt and
elsewhere in the world. A queer insect is he,
and always appears to be so decidedly in earnest,
though he never seems to be doing any-
thing material nor going anywhere in particular.
I have lain upon the sand and watched them, but
have not assimilated very much about their
habits. What they feed upon, if, indeed, they
do feed, I know not. Nor where they lay their
eggs. The one thing about them that I do know
is that they are plentiful, as plentiful as the sands
I was going to write.
As I was setting out on a search for the buck
I have above alluded to, I put up a greater bustard
(Eupodotis Edwardsi). A handsome bird this, but
assimilates to the ostrich in some of his ideas.
After running some 30 yards, he put his head
under a small tuft of grass and imagined he was
hidden. This he did several times as I slowly
advanced towards him. I did not intend shooting
him on the ground, and he apparently thought he
was unobserved.
He is a sandy buff and mottled in colouring,
203
Jungle By-Ways in India
and resembles to a marked degree his desert
surroundings. In fact, I found that at 40 yards
he had already become to some degree indistinct.
After I, or we, had proceeded some quarter of a
mile in this manner, I grew rather tired of the
bird’s idiotic manceuvring, and the next time he
put his head in a bush I started running. He
spotted this alteration in my tactics, withdrew
his head in a hurry and running a few strides
launched himself in the air with a great fluster,
when I dropped him. He proved the most
excellent eating with a certain claret sauce,
known to an excellent chef of a friend of mine.
The sun had already got to some height above
the horizon when we at last discerned a herd of
gazelle.
After a careful examination through the glasses
I came to the conclusion there was nothing big
amongst the lot, and was just going to lower them
when to the left I noted a movement, and up got
a buck with what I took to be a very fine pair of
horns. ‘Should be a record,’ I muttered.
The buck ran about half-way across a flat,
sandy plain intersected by a ravine, near the edge
of which they stood. They had not apparently
perceived us, and seeing that there was no cover on
the plain, we moved back and made a cast to the
right and got behind a low sand-hill, by keeping
to the lee-side of which we could approach the
ravine.
204 .
Horns
Once in this, we thought, matters would be
plain sailing. The ravine, however, was by no
means easy work ; it was filled with loose brown
sand which proved heavy walking, and it zig-
zagged about in a most extraordinary manner.
Carefully as we proceeded we went astray, for on
looking over the edge, when we calculated we
had got low enough, the gazelle were nowhere
to be seen. I swept with the glasses every spot I
could get at. Not a trace. We knew they had
not crossed the ravine, as we should have seen
their trail. We climbed up out of the ravine and
stood on the plain again, and the riddle was solved.
Away to the right was a small depression in the
surface of the sand, and almost as it caught our
eyes a doe’s head appeared on its farther side.
Another and another followed. A buck’s head
appeared. I raised the rifle. It was not the
big one though. The does caught the move-
ment. They fronted round and looked at me
squarely ; then faced about and were off like
the wind.
I had no eyes for them, however. Two other
does appeared. Where on earth was the buck ?
Suddenly to the left a yellow-brown shadow ap-
peared to shoot forward. He went like an arrow
for about 30 yards in a series of magnificent
bounds. Then stopped and half turned to look.
That halt was fatal. As he rose in the leap that
was to recommence the flight for safety, my
205
Jungle By-Ways in India
bullet caught him in the shoulder, and he fell
kicking on the sand.
He was in his death-throe as I got up and
stood beside him. What a beautiful dainty little
animal, and how wonderfully soft and liquid
the large lustrous eyes, now, alas, with a last
reproachful hauntingly appealing look, glazing
into death!
What does it feel like to be a murderer? Are
the feelings worse than those experienced on such
occasions ?
PART III
PELTS
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SSS,
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Ze
CHAPTER I
Tiger—The King of jungle sports—Tiger country—Knowledge of
country necessary for successful beating—Aid of native shikaris—
Tiger ‘pugs’ or tracks—Size of tigers—Number of cubs born—
Beating up tiger with elephants—Thrilling work—Glorious jungle
scenery— Waiting for the beating elephants— Stripes’ unwilling —
The broken line—Different behaviour of beaten tigers—A difficult
beat and a long wait—Some queer neighbours—‘ There’s many a
slip’—Beating out a cur—Breaks back—Rout of the tiffin elephant
—Half-hearted charges—Lies close—The cur meets his deserts—
Padding the tiger.
BEATING FOR TIGER
T does not fall to the lot of the average
shikari man in India to enjoy tiger-beating
par excellence with a long line of elephants.
Those whose luck it has been to participate
in this luxurious form of sport will surely agree
P 209
Jungle By-Ways in India
that for thrilling excitement, when tiger are afoot,
and more especially when wounded tiger are
afoot, it is hard to beat.
But it is the sport of kings and princes, bejewelled
rajas (did not the mere name of raja conjure up to
us in our nursery days weird, gorgeous beings
heavily decked out in gold and jewels ?), Viceroys
and Lieutenant-Governors, the deputies of kings,
and such minor fry as commissioners, moneyed
globe-trotters, and suchlike.
For to enjoy this form of sport in its pristine
excellence not only requires a long purse, but,
added thereto, more than a nodding acquaintance
with the great powers that be, which gives that
interest and power in the land which literally
results in a shower of shikar elephants being
poured upon one by their gilded possessors.
For to few of us is it given to be in the position
to keep a stable of elephants with that reckless
disregard of cost which animates the subaltern
of cavalry in maintaining his string of polo
ponies.
I have often heard men say that they do not
consider tiger-beating with elephants real sport.
That the wretched tiger has not a dog’s chance
with a great line of elephants beating him up
through the grass jungle. This may apply to
parts of the country, but it certainly does not
to the glorious Terai jungles of Northern India
and along the foot of the Himalaya.
270
Pelts
To make sure of getting the tigers of these
parts up to the line requires one to possess the
craft and guile of the serpent added to that of
the tiger himself.
One must know the jungle like one’s own hand.
Every rao bed and large nullah, every little ravine
running into the hills must be marked down
and ‘stopped’ if one wants to make sure of
putting the tigers up to the guns, and even with
all this hardly acquired knowledge one is so often
* betty
The acquisition of this necessary jungle lore
is one of the most fascinating parts of the whole
sport. The knowledge how to practically force a
tiger to take a certain line of country so as to face
one or other of a line of guns placed in position,
be they in a howdah, machan, or on foot, is only
attained by a long and careful study of the habits
of the lord of the jungles himself, together with
those of what may be called accessory animals,
and by the possession of an intimate acquaintance
with the ground. That this work can be entirely
left to the native shikari many of us know to
be impossible. Valuable help he can give in
making us acquainted with the peculiarities of
the local tiger, since each tiger differs in many
small ways and habits, just as human beings do,
and this knowledge the local men are always
able to afford. They can also recognize a
particular tiger by his ‘pugs’ or tracks, evidences
21t
Jungle By-Ways in India
of his whereabouts which even the tiger cannot
help leaving behind him. But to depend upor
the local shikaris entirely is a very different
matter. On occasions all will go well and the tigers
will appear, but how oft is the reverse the case ?
We most of us know that nowadays when rifles
Tiger 2 Aina feos Tiger &. Fore Ju,
The pugs of a tiger, fore* and hind.
are yearly becoming more numerous, it is to the
interest of the local native shikaris that the tigers
of their locality should not be shot in too large
numbers, for thereby the greater number of
sahibs will visit their jungles and the greater will
be the amount of baksheesh they will earn! This
may not apply so forcibly to the sportsman who
appears with a line of twenty elephants or so, for
he will probably have behind him the sort of power
* The fore foot of a tiger has five toes, the hind four,
212 *
Pelts
which even the native shikari will have to respect,
and the tigers are turned out if skill of man can
bring this consummation about.
But for those who have not this power behind
them, my advice is, trust not blindly to the native
shikari if you wish to really enjoy good sport.
The average length of the tiger (Felis gris) from
tip to tip is g feet 6 inches, the tail being normally
a little less than 4rd total length. A skin of this
size will, however, stretch to nearly 12 feet.
Tigresses measure from 8 feet to 8 feet g inches.
The record tiger measured probably about 12 feet.
Anything over Io feet would now-a-days be good.
To measure a tiger lay him out on his side
straight and then run the tape from the tip of
the nose between the ears to the tip of the tail
closely following the curves of the body.
The period of gestation of the tiger is 14 to 15
weeks. Two cubs, born between December and
June, is the number usually reared and they are
to be found with the mother till nearly full
grown.
Have you ever occupied a howdah in a line of
thirty elephants, slowly beating through grass
jungle properly stopped ahead? If so, you will
know what pure unalloyed excitement and joy is !
How you thrill at every rustle ahead as you
stand rifle at the ready, ‘ giving’ to the swaying
motion of the howdah, prepared for a snapshot
213
Jungle By-Ways in India
at a glancing streak of yellow suddenly appearing
out of and disappearing into the grass so like in
colouration to itself. Or ready for that far more
exciting moment, the direct charge of a real fight-
ing royal tiger who means business. Body and
mind are braced up to breaking-point with the
concentration necessary to emerge successfully
from this ordeal, for on your hand and eye depend
your elephant’s safety. Should the tiger make
good his charge and get home on the elephant’s
head or quarters, both you and the mahout are
likely to have a rocky time of it for the next few
moments, whilst the chances are that your ele-
phant will have finished his career as a shikar
one. For an elephant once mauled by tiger
usually refuses to face ‘stripes’ ever after. Anda
‘bolter,’ when a tiger is charging, is about as un-
comfortable a mount to sit upon as could be
found in a long day’s march ; and more especially
is this the case when one is in a howdah, for you
cannot slip out of this with the same ease as you
can slip off the pad.
As we move slowly along, it is difficult to keep
one’s eyes from the beautiful panorama before us.
We are slowly swaying and swishing through a sea
of thick, tall, yellow elephant - grass, which in
places rears its last season’s flower-stalks far above
our heads. This grass clothes the edge of the
nullah in a dense mass, and as we emerge from
it into the vao bed we see in front of us a vivid
214 *
Pelts
green patch of shisham copse, now in the brave
glory of its spring foliage, standing as a small
island in the middle of the nullah bed, here some
200 yards broad. Other small islands of this tree,
interspersed with the thorny acacia or khair, and
often with a dense grass undergrowth, are to be
seen in the bed of the river; likely spots to
find ‘stripes’ at home, lying up after his heavy
night’s meal off the easily killed ‘tie up’ (a
buffalo in these parts), dozing away the hot hours
of the day with the murmuring sound of tinkling
water in his ears. To our right, some 50 yards
away, is the edge of the sal forest, the trees now
clothed in their beautiful vivid green spring
leafage. The strip of maidan forest here soon
rises up into the closely adjacent foot-hills, those
smiling outliers of the Great Himalayan Chain, all
now covered with their brilliant spring garment—
safe home of the big sambhar stags and the ever-
open line of retreat for our tiger if he once gets
a notion that we are on his tracks. Behind the
smiling foot-hills rise, range on range, the beauti-
ful ridges of the Himalaya ; in places clothed with
dark black forest, in others the bare slopes covered
with a now burnt-up short grass, gold burnished
in colour, or tumbling sheer down in some yawn-
ing and frowning black beetling cliff. So clear
is the atmosphere that the farthest peak appears
but a few miles away, whilst over all is the great
blue vault of that brilliant intense blue so par-
215
Jungle By-Ways in India
ticularly characteristic of the Indian hot weather.
In the early morning and evening the lights on
this beautiful panorama are soft and tender. Now
everything is hard and clear-cut and gleaming,
for the sun is directly overhead, throwing no
shadow except that which each one of us stands
upon, and the hot wind is blowing with a steady
persistence and fierceness. Very unwilling will
‘stripes’ be to move at such an hour, and prob-
ably exceedingly angry when forced so to do.
But if it is exciting beating in line for, tiger, it is
even more intensely so when, placed in one’s
howdah in some favourable spot just at the edge
of a patch of grass, one catches sight of the
slowly advancing line of beating elephants. Only
a howdah or two is amongst them, occupied by
those who are in charge of the line, and respon-
sible that the individual elephants keep their
distance and do not straggle and allow gaps to
intervene through which the tiger could sneak
out. The rest of the elephants are pad ones, or
have their mahouts alone on their heads, or per-
haps a wildly excited grass-cut perched up aloft
on their backs. ’
As they draw near, watch the line! You cannot
help but admire the sagacious beasts, each one
fully aware of the nature of the matter in hand,
as they move slowly along to the voice of their
mahouts, submerged to the shoulders in the long
grass. The howdahs slowly sway from side to
216 .
Pelts
side as the great animals advance, crackling and
swishing through the long and reedy jungle,
whilst the khaki-clad occupants, rifle in hand,
peer down into the yellow leafy wall, striving to
pierce the jungle’s depths as it bends and dips
before the great black masses driving through it.
Nearer they come, and still no sign! Can the
tiger or tigers, for there may be more than one
in the beat, have broken back ?
The grass patch thins out here to a narrow
strip. One of the occupants of the advancing
howdahs sings out that one tiger is certainly
in the grass, and yet now scarcely 20 yards
separate one from the advancing line. At the
point where the grass ends a second howdah
and rifle is posted, whilst’on the opposite side
to myself is a third rifle. The elephants stand
like bronze-black statues, trunks curled up in
safety, ears forward, but not a quiver. The
mahout’s eyes roll swiftly from side to side.
“Where is the skulking shaitan (devil)?’ he
mutters. Nearer comes the line. One is positively
tingling with excitement, but not a movement or
rustle in the grass is to be seen, and the line is but
ten yards away. Suddenly an uproar to my left
front. Two elephants swerve outwards, trumpet-
ing shrilly amidst the execrations of their own
and the neighbouring mahouts! For a moment
grass, elephants, and men appear to be in a wild
turmoil. Ah! the line is broken! Though the
217
Jungle By-Ways in India
beating elephants were almost touching one
another, the tiger’s courage failed him—for he
was there right enough. He had funked facing
the open, and had dashed back, breaking through
the line of howdahless elephants.
Oh, that glorious five minutes! Worth days
of the humdrum routine of life !
It is almost impossible to say how a tiger will
behave in a beat of this nature, and therein lies
the great fascination of the game.
We had been beating with a line of thirty
elephants one day, and had lost two tigers in the
morning. Both had sneaked out of the beat up
small side ravines, and one of them in spite of
stops being placed to prevent him.
It was a scorching hot April day with a fierce
hot wind blowing, and after lunch the line was
taken to a beat which was rarely drawn blank if
properly worked. The howdahs were placed
lining the top of a bank of a small grass-filled
nullah, with an 8-foot drop on one side into the
nullah bed. I had been allotted the end of the
line at a spot where the grass thinned out and
disappeared into a patch of forest. Given that
the beast did not break near the other guns, I
should be certain of a chance, and a good one,
of coming to close quarters with ‘stripes.’ The beat
was a difficult one to start, as the jungles on that
side were very broad and broken up with ravines.
For what seemed a very long time I sat in my
218 :
Pelts
howdah and kept a watch, rather a casual one
I am afraid, on the sea of grass down below in
front of me, and with more interest upon the
neighbouring tree trunks.
What are lizards made of, I wonder? The
temperature was anything over 180°, and a
scorching hot wind was blowing. Yet two
lizards were playing hide-and-seek round the
trunk of a sal tree with as much keenness as if
the temperature was a grateful 60°. These little
batrachians don’t appear to sleep during the
daytime, and since the greater number of the more
tempting forms of insect life were taking a siesta
during the great heat of the day (save the flies—
they never sleep, I believe—and a few noxious,
gaudy species), the lizards had nothing to do but
to carry on in this foolish fashion, which made
one perspire to look at them.
Some curious brilliant orange-red and green
tree-bugs also claimed attention. They were not
apparently inclined to keep up their circulation
after the fashion of the lizards, and yet they
appeared to feel the cold too, for they were huddled
up close together (like a flock of sheep packed
together for warmth in a snowstorm), portions
of each flat body overlapping those of others,
presumably to keep each other warm. I wonder
what temperature would lead these queer forms
of life to open out a button or two of their vests
and comfortably bask !
219
Jungle By-Ways in India
I had glanced on several occasions at a tall
grass stem close to me. I did not know why it
attracted me, but it did. I seemed to have a
sort of sub-conscious feeling that a portion of
it had moved, and this annoyed me just suffi-
ciently to make me keep half an eye upon it.
Yes, there it was again! It looked as if a part
of one of the dead yellow leaf-sheaths had moved
slightly up the stem it clasped. I looked more
carefully this time, but could see nothing. Sud-
denly a thought struck me, and leaving the
family party on the sl tree, who apparently
found the temperature rather colder than was
pleasing to them, I turned my full attention
to the grass-stalk which reared itself up some
10 feet or so above my head.
Seeing my fixed stare in one direction, the
mahout thought I was on the tiger, and for a
time showed intense interest. This, however,
subsided, as he began to think the sahib was
daft. It required a lot of patience before that
grass stem showed any signs of life again, but it
did so eventually, and I saw my leaf-sheath
slowly beginning to move up the stem. To any
one with no natural history knowledge the
problem would have remained an insoluble one,
for the similarity of the moving grass piece to
the stem was exact. And yet that moving grass
piece was not grass, but an insect—one of the
stick insects. He also did not appear incom-
*
220
A stick insect on a grass head.
Jungle By-Ways in India
moded by the great heat, save that his move-
ments were so appallingly slow that one longed
to be able to help him move his feet a bit quicker.
Doubtless he was slowly under weigh to partake
of lunch, though why he could not choose the
early morning or evening for his meals, like
most wise animals, and why he should choose for
his siesta a leaf-stalk in the full glare of a May
tropic sun, were questions I was, and am, unable
to answer.
Another fairly common denizen of these jungles
whom you will come across is a curious red bat
which gets up in the beat at times, and flies
quietly and shadow-like over the grass heads,
and goes to ground again on some stem. I saw
one in this particular beat. He is a common bat
of the great grass jungles of the north, and is as
curious as he is fairly plentiful.
Whilst pursuing my natural history observa-
tions, I had now and then thrown my eye on
to my nearest neighbour on the right, who was
the only one I could see. He had been getting
restive latterly, I had noticed—he and his elephant
and mahout, apparently. Perhaps the tension
or impatience of the one was communicated
to the others.
_I imagine he thought the beat was not going
as it ought to. I certainly did appear to have been
studying my neighbour’s curious habits and
attitudes for some time! Suddenly a crack like
222 5
Pelts
a pistol-shot—an elephant breaking a branch
from a tree. My eyes went down to the sea of
grass in front of me, and remained there. A
distant rustling made itself heard, and slowly,
very slowly, approached, with many halts during
which the voice of a mahout raised in execration
or exhortation came to me faintly. Away to
my right on the opposite side of the nullah a
black shape loomed up—a howdah elephant.
It was B—— who had gone with the line and was
doing flanking elephant. Owing to some diffi-
cult ravines, he had got thrown out a bit, and was
now ahead of the line. He came on till he was
about midway between the rifle to my right
and myself, when he halted. The line slowly
approached, and nothing showed afoot. Nor
was I aware that anything had been seen. I
saw out of the corner of my eye that the line
had passed A to my right, as he was looking
in my direction. If tiger there be, I thought, he
should be mine. Suddenly down the centre of
the grass, with tail cocked stiff over his back,
came galloping a fine tiger. Although he must
have more or less disappeared in the grass each
time he touched ground, the impression left on my
memory as he came bounding along (of which
I made a rough sketch) is that he was in full view
the whole time.
And a fine sight he was! He first appeared
just above B——,, and I saw the latter’s rifle go
223
Jungle By-Ways in India
up, and bang went a first barrel, followed quickly
by the second. The tiger held steadily on without
asound. Now he was past B , and making for
me. As I fired he dropped into the long grass
and disappeared. All was quiet. I saw him
turn over, and so did my mahout, with much gut-
tural joy that it should have been our day. This
Down the centre of the grass came galloping a fine tiger.
was the end of the beat, and as I saw that B
had not a notion where the tiger had dropped,
or even that it had dropped, as a bank had hid
the later stages from him, we scrambled down
the cliff on our side, and went up warily through
the grass, shouting to him to cover his side.
Slowly we approached the spot where the tiger had
turned over, A—— coming up on the right, whilst
the beating elephants were lined across in front.
It was unnecessary, however, as ‘stripes’ had
224 .
Pelts
received his quietus and was dead enough.
We came upon him, lying on his side in the tall
grass, a fitting pall for the great cat.
In no other sport save shooting does the old
adage, ‘ There’s many a slip’ come in so often.
One of B ’s bullets, a 577 Express which there
was no mistaking, had hit the tiger. The game
beast, almost knocked to pieces with the terrific
shock, had come gallantly on to me for all he
was worth, and as I fired had dropped dead.
It is curious what an abject cur the tiger is,
or some of the breed are, on occasions. I re-
member we had a tight and exciting time with
a cur of the first water one morning. The beat
was a somewhat difficult one to manage, as it
consisted of a sea of tall grass on one side of
a river-bed, flanked to the left by a wide open
stony portion of the nullah bed, with the river
itself flowing down a narrow channel on the
farther side, and on the right by a cart-road,
from the off-side of which sprang a low sal
forest-covered hill. The grass merged ahead
on the right into a small patch of dense forest,
the under cover consisting, wherever the trees
left sufficient space and light, of the dry, tall,
thick elephant grass. The grass to the left of
the forest gradually narrowed, until it formed
a small, dense, triangular patch of some 20-30
yards in length, and about double that, perhaps,
in breadth at the far end of the forest, beyond
Q 225
Jungle By-Ways in India
which was open stony river-bed. The great
difficulty was to stop and guard the road, across
which it was practically certain the tiger would
attempt to break, as he would never face the
wide-open spaces to the left and in front.
Until the beat approached the forest the
howdahs—there were four of us, with three
others in the line—remained in echelon on the
right of, and ahead of, the beat, my place being
No. 3 from the right. As we began to draw near
the forest the line halted, and we four howdahs
moved up the road in single file. I took third
place on the road as we slowly advanced, having
one howdah behind me. At a signal I halted,
the front two howdahs continuing up the road.
No. 2 halted at about sixty paces from me, whilst
No. 1 disappeared from sight round a bend. The
beat was not a nice one either for the beaters,
who would have difficult work getting through the
thick forest, nor for us, who could hope at best
for a snap shot as the tiger sprang across the
road and disappeared up the sdl-covered hill on
the opposite side.
In order to enable me to fire at an angle up
the road, and thus get a fraction more time,
whilst at the same time being free of the other
rifles, the mahout forced the elephant to back
a little way into the thick wall of the forest,
and we then stood and waited in a tense silence.
No time was there this morning for natural
226
Pelts
history observations. The beat was a short one,
and the tiger marked down in this area might be
on us at any moment. As I peered into the thick-
matted depths of the forest behind me now and
then, I thought that rarely had it been my lot to
see such a peculiarly favourable spot for ‘stripes’
to lie up in. The grass itself on the far side of the
forest strip was dense, and thick enough to satisfy
most that they were in a veritable Indian jungle.
But the grass was child’s play to the work that
awaited the elephants once they started to force
their way through the wall of forest, narrow
though the area was. °
The line came slowly on, but not a sound was
to be heard in the forest behind one. Once we
both thought we heard a stealthy rustle and a
tiny twig snap ; but that was all, and the elephant
stood like a stone and made no sign of the near
proximity of a tiger.
On came the giant beaters, rustling and swish-
ing through the long thick grass. A crash! Ah!
the first elephants are entering the forest, and un-
willingly so, apparently from the objurgations cast
at them by their drivers. Cries, shouts, and that
dull, muffled, drum-like sound of the goad beaten
on the elephants’ heads come through the forest
to one, and the eyes almost ache from the strain
one is putting them to in our efforts to keep a
look out on every likely spot.
A glance to my right as I face the road shows
227
Jungle By-Ways in. India
that B—— has begun to close slowly up, and
as the line nearly reaches me I advance slowly, in
order to keep slightly ahead of it. We are now
acting as stops as well as rifles.
Not a sign has been seen or heard of the tiger.
Can he have slipped out ? Suddenly, shouts and
execrations from the middle of the line. My
mahout whispers that the tiger had been viewed
attempting to sneak back through a clump of tall
grass between two of the beating elephants.
Curses freely bestowed upon him by the mahouts,
and clods of earth and other missiles flung in his
direction cause him to change his mind, and he
turns and slinks forward.
A cur apparently !
Again we move forward, and as we do so I
notice coming up on the road behind B—— the
pad-elephant which carried the lunch-baskets and
boxes, with three gaudy, gold-bedizened khits in
snowy pagris seated upon them.
We advanced slowly, and now the howdah in
front of me commences to move forward, and the
beating line is almost parallel. So narrow are the
forest strip and grass to the far side of it becoming,
that already the beating elephants are nearly
touching each other in the line.
We reach a very tall and thick clump of grass
standing on the edge of the forest and road, and
I pushed on so as to be able to see the far side of it.
As the beating elephants came through it, to my
228
Pelts
surprise I find that the lunch-elephant had come
up between me and the nearest of the beaters—
the men on her in a state of wild excitement, and
apparently in ignorance of, or oblivious to, the
fact that they were on a beast who had the repu-
tation of being a confirmed bolter, and would no
more face a tiger than a jungle fire.
Another patch of thick, tall grass, and as I
ranged alongside it on the road there was a sharp
rush. Strive as I would, I could see nothing—
nothing at all. Another rush !
The grass was like a thick yellow wall, into
which I dare not fire without being perfectly sure
of my target. Suddenly wild pandemonium, and
out of the grass just behind me dashes the lunch-
elephant, his mahout cursing and exhorting and
hammering and digging in his iron goad all in
vain. On top is a swaying mass of lunch-boxes
and baskets and men—their eyeballs start-
ing out of their sockets, their snow-white pagris
either off or flung in long streamers to the wind,
each hair of their beards sticking straight out in
their terror, whilst interspersed with prayers to
Allah and Bap re Baps are frantic objurgations to
the mahout to urge his beast to greater en-
deavours for the Shaitan of a yellow devil was
after them all, and would surely get up among
them.
I don’t think I have ever laughed so much in my
life. The back view of that elephant doing time
229
Jungle By-Ways in India
down the road bearing its mass of lunch and
drink-baskets, and cursing and praying humanity
(reduced from their state of jaunty and superior
aloof flunkeyness, for were they not the Burra
Lord Sahib’s naukars to whom it was a con-
descension to serve such as you at all!), was the
most ludicrous sight imaginable.
What had happened? The tiger whom I had
heard in the grass perceiving how near he was to
the edge of his shelter, and being a white-livered
cur to boot, had lain skulking in the grass, and
seeing his opportunity owing to the unauthorized
presence of the lunch-elephant, had sprung
between it and the outer pad-elephant and broken
back. The lunch-elephant gave at once as we
have seen, and with shrill trumpets of alarm
turned and fled out of the jungle like a driven
rabbit, thus upsetting the two beater elephants
nearest to it. The grass was so dense that al-
though I could follow with my rifle muzzle the
first springs of the tiger, I could see nothing of it.
A sharp order and we turned left, and in our turn
did time down that road, waving forward B——
as we approached, as it was necessary to round
up the tiger at once if he was not to escape us.
Several of the beater elephants came out on to
the road and followed us down at a rough, sham-
bling amble, whilst others went down through the
grass on the other side of the forest. The line
was reformed, and we beat over the old ground
230
Pelts
again. The tiger was once seen as he slunk for-
ward, the fact being proclaimed by a howl of
derision from the nearest mahouts, but that was
all. We reached and passed the scene of the
exploit of the khits, who were now, by the way, at
a safe distance behind, loudly extolling their
prowess in face of the Shaitan, who was presently
to eat the bullets of the sahibs. No rustle in the
thick patch of grass proclaimed that the tiger was
there. Nor could he have broken back again at
this point.
Turning a slight angle of the road, I came
into view of what must now prove the scene of the
final tussle, since ‘stripes’ had refused to face
the road to the right, and dared not try and break
through the line again. I now saw that the
leading howdah had taken up his position in the
open, a few yards from where the dense patch
of grass at the top of the forest abruptly ended.
No. 2 howdah, which was occupied by a girl,
daughter of our host, remained upon the road
at the corner, commanding both the road in
my direction and the top edge of the grass.
I closed up within about 30 yards of this
howdah, and faced towards the grass, the
fourth howdah halting some 40 yards behind
me.
This patch of dense grass, which must now
contain the tiger, was scarcely 30 yards long
by double that broad, and the beaters had just
231
Jungle By-Ways in India
got into it before we had any intimation of the
tiger’s whereabouts.
A sudden rush, and he charged through the
grass to within 20 yards of the girl in the howdah,
and was met by a shot, followed rapidly by a
second, and he turned and slunk back. Now
would come my time, I thought, for it seemed very
The tiger charged through the grass.
improbable that such a cur would face the open
country in which the leading howdah had taken
up his post. The next few minutes were nearly as
exciting as any I have lived through, as with
finger on trigger I faced the wall of grass not Io
yards away, and expected each second to see a
yellow shadow flash out of the jungle towards my
elephant.
Very, very slowly the line came on, halting
almost at every stride to make sure of not
*
232
Pelts
walking over the tiger skulking in a_ grass
tussock.
A second rush in the grass, a half-hearted one,
nearer to me this time, but still at the girl’s
howdah. This time I saw nothing of the beast,
and I don’t think the girl saw more than a gleam
of yellow, at which she fired one barrel. Up to
now I had been naturally diffident about firing
at what was the girl’s tiger, but No. 1 howdah
shouted me to fire the moment I saw the brute,
and I was quite prepared to do so.
Almost immediately after the second charge
I heard a rustle just in front of me. The tiger
was evidently slinking down towards the thick
patch of grass in which he had broken back
once already. This manceuvre was soon spotted,
however, and he was sent back by the elephants.
It was too late now for that kind of thing. Had
he tried the road much earlier in the beat, he
had some chance of escaping unscathed, as the
shot any of us would have had would have been
a very nasty one. Now he would have to face
the fire of more than one rifle in all probability—
a fitting reward for the cur he undoubtedly was!
As he sprang back on being turned by the
elephants, he must have passed within 15 yards
of the edge of the grass fronting me, but so thick
was it that I could see absolutely nothing at all.
The excitement was all the greater, since none of
us knew for certain whether the beast was wounded
233
Jungle By-Ways in India
or not. He had never spoken to either of the
shots. From his behaviour I had every belief
that he was, especially as the fair occupant
of No. 2 howdah was a good shot and a fairly cool
hand at the game.
A third rush through the grass facing lucky
No. 2, and a more determined one this time. He
came to the edge of the grass and was met with a
shot. I just saw a flickering patch of yellow for an
instant as the cur turned for the third time and
retreated. So sure had I been of a shot this time
that I had all but pulled the trigger at the place
I had expected him to occupy an instant later.
‘Budzat Shaitan,’ muttered my mahout audibly,
“you and your grandmother are white-livered
women and the offspring of pigs.’
The third charge had failed, and my hopes
now went down to zero, and I envied the three
men in the howdahs in the line, for it appeared to
be a gift for any one of them, unless they walked
over him, which was not impossible in that thick
stuff. The beating elephants were now closed
up so as to touch each other, and I advanced
up the road in line with them, so as to give no
opening for ‘stripes’ to sneak across the road. We
went very slowly, halting at each step.
The howdah in the line nearest me was just
about in the middle of the grass patch, and its
occupant craned over the edge with his eyes
piercing the jungle straight below him and finger
234
Pelts
on trigger. Suddenly, when about 20 yards
from the top edge of the grass patch, there was
a rustle and a rush—always back. I saw the
occupant of this howdah suddenly lean over the
side fronting me, point his rifle vertically down-
wards, and fire both barrels in quick succession.
‘Habet !’ he shouted.
True to his nature, the skulker had endeavoured
to lie low in the grass, hoping to be passed over
by the line, and he came very near to success
when he received his quietus and died the death of
a cur. Not once had he shown any real fight ;
his three charges, when decided upon, each resulted
in retreat, when, had he pushed them home, he
might have reached safety on the hill behind us.
An examination showed that one of the bullets
of the girl had hit the beast in the head, probably
one of the first two fired. F——, who had finished
the beast off, had also hit him in the head, brain-
ing him on the spot, his other bullet going wide.
So ended a beat which contained a number
of lessons to be learnt by those who would—a
beat full of the most intense excitement, and
yet a beat in which the tiger had died the death
of a cur.
A pad elephant was now called up, the tiger’s
-ody was enveloped in a net made of stout fibre
ropes and the whole then hauled on to the
elephant and securely bound to the pad to be
taken back to camp.
235
Jungle By-Ways in India
One could add anecdote on anecdote concerning
this fascinating sport, but it is now time to turn
and consider the methods by which a less well-
filled purse and a less exalted station in life can
carry on war against ‘stripes.’
MH bs Mie) |
|
ult My Mi
Ki oa out NS s i \
CHAPTER II
Tying up and sitting up for tiger—The ‘gara’ or ‘kill’—How to tie
up—Native shikari tactics—Government rewards for man-eaters—
News of a ‘kill’—Beating out the tiger with villagers—Stops—A
plucky Kol—Machan-shooting—Fascinating jungle sights—Vul-
tures—The pea-fowl’s warning—A tiger appears—Despair—Meet
a tiger on the prowl—The Bhisti’s adventure—Cattle-lifters—A kill
—How to prepare the machan—My first tiger—The cattle-lifter—
Cattle-lifting extraordinary—Sit up for the robber—Mosquitoes—
The tiger appears—A lost opportunity—When the blood is young
—Things incredible.
TYING UP AND SITTING UP FOR TIGER
ERHAPS the most general of all methods
employed in the pursuit of tiger through-
out the country is to tie out ‘kills’
(gara), consisting of buffaloes or cows, in
the forests or jungles known to be occupied by
‘stripes,’ and wait till a kill shall enable you to
get to work.
237
Jungle By-Ways in India
This form of securing a much-coveted trophy
is very monotonous in a way, since it means that
you can do little yourself to assist matters. In
many districts, too, tiger have now become so
wary and cute that they will pass by a gara tied
up without so much as a glance at it; or, more
aggravating still, will walk round it and then
depart without touching it. Or, most aggravating
of all, will kill the beast and then not come near
it again.
The gara or ‘ kill’ consists of a buffalo or cow,
depending to a great extent on which is most pro-
curable, or in parts of the country upon the re-
ligious susceptibilities of the people of the locality.
For the selection of the sites in which to tie up,
one must be guided by the local shikari of the
neighbourhood, unless one is in the happy position
of having a thorough knowledge of the locale,
and of the habits of the tigers living in the country.
Without this, one is from the outset practically
in the hands of the local men, and one often finds
that as a result of several weeks’ work and the
outlay of considerable sums of the coin of the
realm one has an empty bag, the tigers being kept
to attract other equally simple and deluded
sahibs. °
I would not be understood to mean that this is
invariably the case, and it will not usually be so
in areas where tiger are plentiful. Also one thing
in favour of the sportsman’s now and then having
238 *
Pelts
a good time, is that the shikari has to be very
careful that he does not inculcate sportsmen with
the idea that there is nothing to shoot in his
neighbourhood, otherwise his golden harvest will
come to a sudden and abrupt end.
The improvement of rifles and the great drop
in price of many of the cheaper patterns which
the last few years has seen, is another factor in the
case. It tempts the shikari to endeavour to keep
the tiger, and especially notable tigers, to shoot
them himself and obtain the Government reward.
I have known instances, many of us will probably
be able to quote cases, where the local shikari or
shikaris in the beat of a notorious man-eater, have
put sahibs off the track and prevented them having
any reasonable chance of a shot at the pest who
had established a reign of terror over a district,
and for whom the large reward of 500 rupees was
offered. With the callous indifference of the
native to human life they would rather let the
weekly toll of human kills go on until they secured
the animal and the reward, rather than help the
parties of European sportsmen who arrived on
the ground prepared to do all they knew to wipe
out the noxious pest.
I have often heard men say that Government
would be wise to grant the heavy rewards offered
for notorious man-eaters to bona fide sportsmen
only, and not allow native shikaris to claim them.
Whilst there is every probability that the man-
239
Jungle By-Ways in India
eating pest would be got rid of at a much earlier
date were this done, the shikari would not suffer,
as the sahib is ever most generous to his helpers
in sporting matters.
When the ‘ kills’ have been purchased and tied
out, the sportsman has nothing to do but sit and
twiddle his thumbs or devote his attention to
other game in areas remote from the ‘tie-ups’
until an animal has been killed. This latter will
usually be done at night or in the late evening,
and occasionally in the afternoon, and the khub-
bar will be brought to him in the early morning,
the shikari and his satellites, or more probably
the latter only, going the round of the tie-ups at
dawn every morning.
In the Central Provinces once a kill has taken
place the tiger’s pugs are carefully followed up
till he is marked down in some patch of grass or
forest, the trackers circling round the area to make
sure that the tracks only enter, and do not leave
the patch. The tiger will remain here through-
out the day, slinking out in the evening or after
nightfall to feed on the kill. Once the locality of
the tiger has been definitely ascertained, a man
or two are left to watch, and the rest depart to
report the matter and to hastily turn out beaters
from the nearest villages, There will be time, as
the beat will not be commenced until the sun has
got to some height in the sky, and the tiger has
taken up his position for the day in some shady
240 *
CENTRAL PROVINCES BEATERS AND THEIR CAMP
A COMFORTABLE FOREST REST-HOUSE IN THE CENTRAL PROVINCES
TIGER COUNTRY
Pelts
spot. Having decided upon the direction of the
beat, ‘stops’ are posted, and the rifle or rifles
take up their positions and the beat commences.
It is in all these arrangements that the sports-
man who has made a study of the matter, is
versed in jungle lore, and is not content to be led
by the nose by his shikari, will find plenty of
interest and occupation as well.
He will probably know the whole of the ground
himself, will choose in consultation with the local
men the position of the rifles, and, as important,
exactly where the ‘ stops’ are to be placed. These
‘stops’ consist of men placed in trees or on the
summit of high rocks on the lines by which the
tiger may endeavour to leave the beat, and are put
there to prevent him going out. The stops re-
quire to be men who are not afraid of the sight of
the Lord of the Jungles, and who will keep their
heads when he appears.
All that is required of them is to tap their tree
very gently at intervals, so as to produce sufficient
sound to make the tiger turn away from their
direction without absolutely frightening him. As
soon as the tiger is aware that the beat has com-
menced, or that there are men about, he will
usually try to slip quietly out of the patch by one
of the paths he is accustomed to take. Most
amusing, but often intensely annoying at the time,
are the stories one hears of the behaviour of these
stops. Occasionally a mistake will be made about
R 241
Jungle By-Ways in India
a man chosen for this purpose, and one hears too
late that on the appearance of the tiger he has
entirely lost his head and has clung to his tree
as one stricken with the palsy, with rattling teeth
and staring eyeballs, whilst ‘stripes’ has strolled
by beneath and out of the beat. Stops often, how-
ever, behave very well, and rise to the occasion
when a more than ordinarily determined tiger en-
deavours to break out of a beat. I saw a man, a
Kol in Chota Nagpur, fling first his axe, without
which implement the Central Indian aborigines
never stir, and then his pagri at a tiger who had
no stomach for a long walk through the grass in
front of a line of noisy villagers who, armed with
village drums, old matchlocks, heavy sticks, and
the inevitable kerosene tin, were creating a babel
fit to raise the dead. That pagri turned this par-
ticular gentleman, who reached the rifles and his
end from a ‘400 cordite Express of a friend. Mine
was the spectator’s part on that occasion.
In Northern India the grass is too long to enable
men to be used as beaters with safety, or with any
chance of success ; and therefore if one has not
a lordly array of elephants to do the work,
such as we have already described, or even one or
two to beat up ‘stripes’ with, one has a machan
or platform built in a tree close to the kill and sits
up over the latter.
To the tyro, if he is a natural history lover, this
procedure is all pleasure, for everything is new to
242 H
Pelts
him at this stage of his introduction to the wild
sports of India ; and the mere vigil in a forest or
area of long grass with the novel sights around
him are of such consuming interest that the long
hours he may have to sit there are absorbing. The
bird-life and insect-life around him will well repay
watching, and later, as the sun’s rays begin to dip
to the horizon, the animal-life will begin to appear.
Then, as he may not fire a shot, he will probably
see some fine chitul heads or a heavy sambhar
pass him by on their way to a favourite grazing-
ground ; or a sounder of pig may come out and
dig and delve and snort and grunt in front of him
in their earnest and patient search for roots. Vul-
tures will be sitting on the surrounding trees eager
but afraid to drop down on to the toothsome car-
case. Their turn will come when the Lord of the
Jungles has filled himself and they will then
gorge themselves to repletion and pick every
bone clean. Jackals will be seen, grey shadowy
shapes, slinking about, but not daring to approach
the kill. Men have seen ‘spots’ himself slink out
of a patch of jungle and have a look at the kill he
would like, but dare not, steal.
One jumps as a loud ‘ paon, paon, paon,’ away
in the forest, cleaves the silence. The tiger is
afoot. Pea-fowl, screeching in the evening or at
night, generally mean that the Lord of the Jungles
is about. We wait patiently, all our senses on the
alert.
243
Jungle By-Ways in India
Suddenly a twittering in a neighbouring tree,
and a slight rustle to one’s right. Slowly, imper-
ceptibly one turns one’s head to see ‘stripes’ him-
self walking across to the kill. He stops and looks
around, and one can see him scenting the air for
anything suspicious.
A movement now and you are lost, and yet one
‘Gr _
F lag
(f_
ib ' if alae
Fi ZB er) ZOS
(| { nD mys tn ~weed OT mm ~
A RN Sede eee
Ik, Ka is
Vultures gorge themselves to repletion.
is at such an angle that it is impossible to fire at
him.
How oft does this not occur! After one has
taken every precaution to ensure one’s being able
to bring the rifle to bear in all directions, he comes
out behind and spoils all.
The excitement is now intense, and especially
will it be so for the tyro—he who has never fired
at tiger before—perchance never seen the animal
outside of a Zoo. He can hear his heart thumping
244 be
Pelts
like a sledge-hammer against his chest, and his
very breathing appears to him now, in the intense
silence, to be like the rushing of a mighty breeze
from his lips. Now the tiger has moved forward
again. Soon, very soon, he will be broadside
on, an easy shot, if one’s too palpitating nerves
and muscles will but keep still for an instant.
Just before the psychological moment, ‘stripes’
stops dead as if turned to stone. An instant
of mad fright on our part and he turns, and with
a ‘woof, woof,’ in a few bounds is lost to sight in
the jungle.
What has happened, we ask ourselves in frenzy !
Surely he can’t have gone for good !
Who knows! He saw or smelt something, or
that sixth sense warned him of peril just as we
were counting him ours and he has gone. We
may as well go too, if we have sense. If we area
tyro we shall sit out long hours in a hopeless wait.
Have you ever accidentally come across a tiger
on the prowl in his native jungles without his
being aware of your presence? This good fortune
befell me recently, and my memory retains a
most vivid recollection of the scene.
I went out one evening for a stroll soon after
my arrival at a small forest rest-house in the
Central Provinces. I had never been in this
particular part of the country, and my object was
as much to learn something about my neighbour-
hood as anything else.
245
Jungle By-Ways in India
I had two baigahs (a local jungle tribe) with me,
and we made a tour of the surrounding patches of
forest and grass land, on the off-chance of seeing
a good sambhar or barasingha stag. We saw
several considerable herds of chitul and barasingha,
all with stags in them, but none with a head worthy
the expenditure of a cartridge. The sun was
dropping behind the nearest tree-covered hill-top
as we reached an open, billowy space of short coarse
grass. We were proceeding in Indian file, and had
got half across this when one of the natives touched
me on the arm and muttered ‘ bagh.’ Now the
word ‘ bagh’ (tiger) is as often as not used by the
natives for a leopard and, not infrequently, for
any animal seen indistinctly, and which their
excited imagination is ever ready to consider
to be the animal they most dread to meet in the
forest. I consequently turned slowly and rather
casually to look in the direction the man pointed
to. Judge my amazement and excitement when
I saw, about a hundred paces away to my left,
a large tiger moving in a direction parallel to the
one we were taking, but going the opposite
way. Mechanically, I seized the heavy rifle which
I fortunately had with me, and cocked both
triggers. As I did so the thought flashed through
my mind that I could not fire at the beast. The
jungle I was in had been already reserved for tiger
by two other men who were to arrive at the
bungalow that evening, and thus the animal in
246 .
Pelts
front of me was taboo. I don’t think I ever felt
more chagrined in my life than at that moment.
We stood stock still and watched ‘stripes.’ He
came striding along with beautifully long un-
dulating strides, his head held erect, his long,
lithe body swinging lightly over the ground
beneath the free movements of his powerful legs,
quae = ps : ‘ ne se fai eek,
“ Ailey») a Te
‘ eM en nN
al ee “tN, he "Ay, \ re “A hte
oO if peg me ae FAT,
A large tiger moving parallel to our direction.
whilst his tail swung slowly from side to side.
On he came, looking enormous. Now he was
directly in front of us, and his head came round.
Had he seen us? For a moment my fingers
gripped the rifle as in a steel vice, but he had not
seen us. I was in khaki, and resembled in colour
the surrounding grass, and the light was fading.
The tiger continued on his way, and we slowly
followed him. Why, I know not, save that the
sight of him fascinated me. His movements
247
Jungle By-Ways in India
were the very poetry of motion, and as he dis-
appeared into a nullah I sighed my disappoint-
ment. The baigahs were wild with excitement.
No thought of fear animated them. ‘Shoot
him, shoot him, sahib!’ they urged. ‘He takes
our cattle weekly, the shaitan!’ What did they
care for shooting rules and the unwritten code of
sportsmen? In the old days the sahib shot, or
tried to shoot, a tiger on sight. Why not now ?
We followed cautiously down the nullah. There
were his pugs as large as life and as fresh. “What
luck! What cursed luck!’ I kept muttering
to myself.
We never saw him again! It was as well,
perhaps. Who knows what thoughts were simmer-
ing at the back of my brain ?
I remember another occasion when I came near
to seeing another tiger in his native wilds. A
friend and myself were camped one May in a
large forest about 100 yards from a small stream.
We had been out bison-tracking all day, and had
got back to the tents just before sundown.
I had just got out of a hot tub when some pea-
fowl set up their ‘paon, paon, paon’ not far off. ‘A
tiger somewhere about,’ I thought, as I towelled
myself. I was partially dressed, when I suddenly
heard the most unearthly yell that has ever fallen
on my ears. Like unto nothing I knew was it,
and yet I never doubted for a moment but that it
came from a human voice. The camp was in an
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uproar at once, and seizing the nearest gun and
slipping into a pair of slippers, I rushed out
‘The stream, it came from the stream!’ I heard
an excited servant crying, and I dashed in that
direction. There was a nearly full moon sailing
over the tree-tops, and by its light I rushed
towards the nullah.
When near the bank I descried a tottering
form approaching me. I brought the rifle to the
ready, but soon dropped it again. It was a man,
and turned out to be the bhisti or waterman.
Never before or since have I seen a native’s face
the colour of his. A dull greyish white, terror-
stricken countenance gazed out at me as he
tottered by .on the path to the camp, the only
sense left to him apparently being that of
direction. I followed him slowly back with one
eye behind me. Near the tents we met H——
hurrying towards us, clothed only in an immense
bath towel and a pair of slippers, but armed
with his heaviest rifle. Patient questioning
elicited the fact that the bhisti had not drawn
enough water during the daylight to satisfy the
cook’s wants, and had consequently been sent
out in fear and trembling to the river after dark.
When in the act of filling his tin a large tiger
had walked down the opposite bank to drink in
the moonlight within fifteen paces of him.
For several seconds tiger and man gazed into
each other’s eyes, then, dropping his tin, the
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Jungle By-Ways in India
wretched man emitted the awful yell we heard,
turned, and tottered away—thus placing himself
at the mercy of ‘stripes.’ Luckily the latter was
not a man-eater, or the man’s fate would have
been sealed.
We went down with a couple of lanterns to the
Tiger : ee fore peel
There were the pugs of a large tiger.
edge of the stream and found ample verification
of the man’s statement, for there, clearly dis-
cernible in the moonlight, were the pugs of a large
tiger, the water slowly oozing into the two
impressions of the fore feet in the sand. Before
starting on this second excursion to the stream I
took the precaution to exchange my shot gun,
loaded with No. 8 cartridges (for that was the
weapon I had hurriedly snatched up on leaving
the tent!) for a heavy rifle.
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THE CATTLE-LIFTER
Of course, all tigers are not shot over ‘ tie-
ups’! A very large number probably end their
lives as the outcome of a natural kill by them-
selves. The tiger that takes to cattle-killing,
and his numbers are very large in the country,
probably meets his end in this manner. As soon as
a kill of this kind occurs the villagers will usually
(or did so in the old days) send word to the nearest
sahib, if there are any in the vicinity.
If the latter has elephants or is in a country
where the villagers will turn out to beat up the
tiger, he is tracked from the kill to the neighbour-
ing piece of jungle in which he is passing the day,
stops are placed, the rifle takes up his position,
and the tiger is beaten out.
If, however, the kill is in a part of the country
where beating is impossible, either owing to the
denseness of the jungle, the absence of elephants,
or the impossibility of getting the natives or a
sufficient number of natives to beat, there is
nothing for it but to sit up over it.
The dead animal, if possible, should be left
exactly as it was when the tiger quitted it, and
the villagers should not be allowed to walk
round it or trample down the grass and jungle
and thus inevitably leave behind them man’s
aroma, a taint of which will effectually prevent
the tiger revisiting the kill. The-machan will be
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Jungle By-Ways in India
fixed to the nearest tree. If the kill is in the open
and no convenient site for the sportsman to sit
up is available, the kill will have to be removed,
and this must be done by means of ropes attached
to the carcase, and the men fixing and removing
ropes should have their feet covered with the
skin of an animal, preferably the inner surface
of the skin of a newly killed animal.
I shot my first tiger over a kill of this nature.
It was down in Berar, where I had proceeded
from Simla on tour one July. Two of us had
been out in the forest all the morning and got
back to breakfast tired and sopping wet about
midday. Half-way through breakfast khubbar
was brought in that a tiger had killed a buffalo
the night before. I could not resist the tempta-
tion, though the other man resolutely refused to
go on the wild-goose chase, as he called it. And
in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred he would
have been right. The kill was six miles away, and
I was wet through long before I got there. Some
three hours did I sit in that machan in the pelting
rain, and at last, just as I had given upall hope, the
tiger suddenly appeared, walking out of the jungle
and round the dead buffalo with his tail in the air
like a great cat. He picked up the buffalo, which
had not been pegged down as it should have been,
in his jaws and before I could do anything carried
it into some bushes where he and it were hidden,
all save a portion of his head. I spent half an
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hour of excruciating agony before risking the shot
at his head which gave me my first tiger.
The cattle-lifter is undoubtedly a most serious
pest to the villager in the area of country he
affects, and at times proves a perfect curse.
I remember one puja holiday I was visiting a
district officer in Hill Tippurah. The day after my
arrival word was brought in that a tiger had killed
five cows out of a herd on the evening before.
In spite of the assurances of the informer, we
felt firmly convinced that there must be more
than one animal to have killed so many, probably
a tigress teaching her cubs how to kill. A party
of five of us rode out to the place, some ten miles
distant. Sure enough, the village shikari con-
firmed the report, and said that only one tiger
was present, and he a well-known depredator
and an old hand at the game. He went lame on
one foot, and this enabled his pugs to be easily
distinguished. There would be a fine moon half
an hour after sunset, and it was agreed that we
should sit up till ten, and then ride home. Five
machans had been built, but one was said to be of
no use, and was occupied by a native. I sat in
the same machan as my friend. We tossed for
first shot, and I lost. There would not be much for
me to do, I surmised. The rains had come to an
end, and the sun set in a wild blaze of red glory
over the edge of the forest-clad hill to our left,
and with its departure arose the most appalling
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Jungle By-Ways in India
hum from millions of mosquitoes that it has ever
been my lot to hear—or feel, for we soon felt
them. They must have been in billions, and their
hum was like unto the hum of a myriad cicadas
in the far-away Himalayan heights. We had been
warned of this, a warning which was unnecessary,
as we most of us knew what to expect, and had
come prepared accordingly. We each had our
own special pet preventive, my own being camphor
oil, with which I had plentifully smeared my face,
neck, hands, and wrists. It is often effective.
In our present place nothing would have been,
for the insects were voraciously hungry. We
had a shocking four hours of it.
The moon rose over the hill-crest, silvering the
tops of the trees, and then throwing vivid and
uncanny shadows over the ground, and turning
areas of tartarean darkness to a beautiful silvery
brightness. Our kill was yet in impenetrable dark-
ness, and the hum of the mosquitoes was all that
broke the stillness. Half an hour passed or per-
haps more, and I leant gently forward. Yes, I
could now indistinctly see the kill. I touched
my friend. He looked over and shook his head.
He wore glasses as he was short-sighted, and told
me afterwards that he could at no time see the
kill as the light was not strong enough for him.
Shortly after a faint snap of a twig caught my
ear. I listened intently. Surely that was a faint
rustle. I looked at my friend. He did not move.
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I leant over, and as soon as my eyes got accus-
tomed to the darkness, there below me I made out
the faint, indistinct outline of something lying over
a portion of the kill. I nudged my companion.
He peered down, looked at me, and peered down
again. I was getting excited. I felt sure the tiger
was below. There was moon enough now to get a
good sight of him just below us. Not remembering
my companion’s short-sightedness, I could not
make out what on earth he was about. Again I
nudged him, and put my finger on his rifle. He
shook his head. By moving my rifle a few feet I
could have got a dead sight on that indistinct
shape. But it was not my shot. A few seconds,
during which I felt the atmosphere becoming
sultry, for I was in a royal rage, and then a
couple of soft rustlings in the bushes and dead
silence. Whatever it was had gone. Half an
hour passed—an hour—and then a rifle-shot,
clean and sharp, clove the air. Silence, and then
another shot, and all was still. Half an hour—an
hour—passed, and then the silence of the forest
was broken by a sharp whistle. It was the signal
for the elephants.
Soon the sagacious beasts came slowly up, and
we slipped on to the pad from the machan. My
friend had appeased my wrath at his not firing
by saying that he could make out nothing at all
on the kill, and yet an inspection showed that
the tiger had been there. None of the three othes
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machans had seen the beast, though one of them
had heard him cruising round in the jungle. The
shots must have come from the despised fifth
machan then—the one occupied by the native.
This proved to be the case. The tiger must have
gone to the outlying kill when he left ours, and
had already commenced to feed before the native
fired, and missed him clean with both barrels.
On reaching the village, a whisky and soda and
a biscuit all round, and we galloped across country
home, going at a pace which only the reckless-
ness of youth and hot blood permits with safety.
Two of us sat up the next day over the two most
likely kills, but we saw nothing of the tiger, and
he never again visited either of the five.
THINGS INCREDIBLE
I had the following tiger yarn from the lips of
an old schoolfellow of mine, and it is really too
good to be lost.
It relates to a second schoolfellow, the three of
us having been contemporaries, and all in the
Services in India.
The man in question, or youth as he was then,
had arrived in Bombay in November to join the
Civil Service. He was posted to an up-country
station, and went out with a party a few weeks
later for the usual Christmas shoot.
He being the newly joined youngster and
griffin of the party, was naturally not looked upon
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aS a great acquisition from the keen shikari’s
point of view. The more so, that his only weapon
consisted of a Service Martini-Henry rifle, relic of
his Oxford volunteering days.
The party intended having a series of hanks,
or beats, for tiger, the rifles taking up their posi-
tions in a line of machans.
The totally inadequately armed griffin was very
naturally relegated to the worst, and safest from
the parties’ point of view, of the positions in the
first beat, with strict orders to fire at nothing
but tiger—this being the general order to the
line.
The beat started, and all remained deadly
silent in the line of machans as the din of the
beaters gradually approached.
Suddenly a shot was heard from the direction
of the obscure corner where our griffin was posted,
rapidly followed by another. Muttered ejacula-
tions from the younger men, and good solid hard
swearing from the more senior members of the
party, followed each shot—swearing which grew
heartier and more fervent as a perfect fusillade
from the corner synchronised with the near ap-
proach of the coolies and end of the beat. The
fact that each sportsman had to remain at his
post and swear in silence under his breath, only
increased the bottled-up wrath.
At the end of the beat, a general and hurried
move was made in the direction of the despised
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Jungle By-Ways in India
corner occupied by the luckless griffin. There
sat the newly joined, still in his machan and ap-
parently wrapped and wreathed in a huge smile
of utter content. As each angry man came up,
a storm of vituperation was poured upon his
devoted head, increasing in volume as each
excited shikari got within hearing.
The smile gradually faded, and the youth stared
in amazement at the angry sportsmen gesticu-
lating below, and then showed signs of evident
confusion at this unexpected universal condemna-
tion.
As soon as he could make himself heard above
the wrathful babel and in reply to a more direct
question from a senior officer of, ‘What the
d—1 do you mean, sir, spoiling the whole shoot
by-your blank, blank fusillade ?’ he blurted out,
‘Tonly got three. How many did you get ?’
“ Three what, sir,’ yelled the peppery old senior.
“Tigers of course, sir,’ meekly answered the
youngster, now seriously alarmed at the de-
meanour of his superior officer. ‘ You said I was
to only fire at tigers. They are down there in the
grass.’
A silence of consternation followed this astound-
ing statement, and a general edging off towards the
shelter of neighbouring trees took place amongst
the overheated sportsmen. When safer positions
had been taken up, a short parley ensued. Asa
result, a couple of elephants put into the grass soon
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Pelts
disclosed a fine full-grown tigress and two nearly
full-grown youngsters lying dead close by—all
bearing the despised Martini-Henry bullets in
them !
CHAPTER III
Leopard or panther—Most crafty of the cat tribe—Habits—Disliked
by the villager—The subaltern’s hope—Distribution—Size of
leopards—Tying up for leopard—Craftiness in a beat—Abundance
of leopards—Shooting ‘spots’ with No. 6—Leopards and small-
bore rifles—Sitting up for the pard—A night adventure—Con-
trariness of the goat—An afternoon vencomtre—The pard in his
natural surroundings.
LEOPARD OR PANTHER
MONGST the most crafty of the jungle
beasts is the leopard or panther (Felis
pardus), the ‘ pard’ or ‘spots’ of the
sportsman.
He is probably more intensely disliked by the
petty, villager than even his more lordly com-
panion the tiger, since, instead of robbing and
killing on the grand scale, he is given to petty
pilfering, and carries off their goats, dogs, and
even young babies in the most cool, exasperating,
and sly fashion.
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The leopard can by no means be considered a
denizen of the big jungles, since he is always
to be found on the outskirts of civilization, lying
up in forest or grassy tracts in the vicinity of
villages, and coming out in the evening to prowl
round the village environs on the look out for the
titbits he is so fond of.
His colouring of fulvous yellow, with the black
ringed rosette markings all over the body and tail,
is particularly adapted to concealment, since it so
closely resembles his environment, and combined
with his slinking, skulking habits, enables him to
carry on his pilfering depredations on the villager’s
possessions in a markedly successful manner.
With all their cleverness and ingenuity in finesse,
to call it by no stronger term, the villager has not
yet discovered how to successfully bring ‘spots’
to book. The latter will lie up in a bush but a
fraction the size of himself, and crouch so low
and keep so still as to deceive and escape even
the keen sight of the jungle-bred villager.
That he should in ninety-nine cases out of the
hundred give us the go-by is therefore scarcely
to be wondered at.
His craft and guile extends not merely to
securing his daily meal. It is equally expended
and brought into play for his own self-preservation
and protection.
I have often pondered and meditated over this
animal, and endeavoured to form some estimate
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Jungle By-Ways in India
of his individual character as seen in the light of
the numerous anecdotes one constantly hears
about him in India, and from one’s own personal
experiences. One cannot help arriving at the
opinion that in the course of centuries of contact
perhaps the animal has assimilated some of the
experience and ways of thought and, shall we add,
the craft and guile of man himself: man as repre-
sented by the Indian villagers living in the neigh-
bourhood of the wilder tracts of the country, who
will necessarily have a close acquaintance with the
habits of the animals living in their vicinity.
In the centuries during which the villager and
panther have been living side by side, is it
absurd to conjecture that the animal has ab-
sorbed a considerable amount of man’s guile and
craft, or has gradually opposed to it a greater
cunning? It is not usual for a leopard to be
caught in a trap or to succumb to poisoned
baits. And yet how often have attempts been
made to induce him to enter the one or eat the
other ! -
His curiosity or craftiness, whichever it may be
due to, will induce him to carefully inspect every
device set out for the purpose of his capture, but
his knowledge of man and his natural cunning
will lead him to do so from a safe distance, and
with the utmost circumspection, and he will
then continue on his way with probably a chuckle
of delight, or perhaps a snort of disgust that
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man should still think so badly of his powers as
to imagine he would be taken in by that /
Even ‘spots’ has his uses, however ; for does he
not form a source of perennial delight and hope to
every subaltern in the country? Do not they
in their hundreds sit up for him in all sorts of
weather, in all sorts of curious situations, the
luckless, but at the same time cute, goat tied
Whilst ‘spots’ sits on his haunches at the edge of the jungle.
to a stake below them, their rifle on their knees,
and high hope in their hearts that this time at
least success will be theirs, and that the pard will
come out to be shot; whilst he, the pard, sits
on his haunches at the edge of the jungle, 150
yards or so away, cleans his face with his paw,
and looks at the whole of the preparations with
an amused grin of appreciation and pity for the
poor deluded fool in the tree !
The leopard is common throughout India,
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Jungle By-Ways in India
and appears to be more particularly partial to
the rocky and hilly portions of the country.
There are considered to be two varieties: the
panther, which is the larger, the average length
of which may be taken at 7 feet ; and the smaller
one, the leopard, the average length of which is
about 6 feet 4 inches. The animal may be said
to range from 5-8 feet in length, the average
height at the shoulder being about 2 feet.
The largest leopard recorded measured 8 feet 5}
inches, shot by Captain A. G. Arbuthnot (The
Sportsman's Book for India), whilst H.H. the
Maharaja of Cooch Behar killed one measuring
8 feet 4 inches (The Aszai).
Anything over 7 feet 6 inches would be nowa-
days considered a big leopard.
The period of gestation is fifteen weeks, the
breeding time being February. and March,
whilst the cubs number from two to four. The
animal takes about three years to reach full
growth.
I do not know whether ‘spots’ exhibits more
craft and skill in approaching a goat tied up as a
bait for him—for on occasions his greed and long-
ing for the appetising morsel overcomes his natural
sagacity and cunning, and he makes the one
irretrievable mistake—or in escaping from a beat
without offering his person to a shot from one
of the posted rifles. Certainly in a beat he is little
short of marvellous. Almost might one say will
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he hide under a leaf or a tiny wisp of grass. I
have—many shikari men will have—stared fix-
edly at, and on to, a leopard for a considerable
time without seeing him at all, and without in
any way being able to outline his form. Only a
slight movement, probably of the eye, or ear has
framed my eye to a portion of him, and has
enabled me to gradually define him. And even at
that he will be lost again if one takes an eye off
him.
Given such a marvellous similarity in his colour
and markings to his natural environment, com-
bined with a wonderful lithe, crouching and abso-
lutely silent method of progression, with perhaps
some little understood instinct for locating
danger, and it is not difficult to understand how
so many driven leopards get safely away, passing
close to the rifles in the most perfect safety.
It was only the other day that a couple of us
had been beating for sambhar and chitul up in the
Dun jungles. The afternoon was drawing to a
close, as we came to the end of a long beat in rather
heavy jungle. But a narrow strip of forest and
tall grass separated us from a broad stony river-
bed. The moment the coolies emerged on the line,
we made hurriedly for the river-bed to take up
our last stand of the day. Quick as we were, we
were not quick enough! As we emerged into the
vao and looked up stream, there, some 150 or 200
yards ahead, was a leopard making off up it. He
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Jungle By-Ways in India
had crossed out of the last beat unseen, had not
waited in the last bit of jungle which was now
to be beaten, but had gone straight through it
and got well out of harm’s way.
Are leopards becoming scarcer or more numer-
ous in the country ? It is a question I have often
heard mooted, and the answers one hears are
always directly antagonistic to one another. My
own opinion, an opinion held by many, I believe,
is that the ‘ pard’ is just as numerous as hereto-
fore, but that he now does not usually hang about
civil stations or military cantonments to the ex-
tent he formerly did. He has learnt, as most
other animals are learning, the nature and power
of the modern rifle, and the fact that it is more
numerous in the vicinity of the abodes of the
sahibs. In stations where formerly it was quite
a common occurrence to shoot leopards im the
station, where they prowled about in the hopes
of taking off that greatest delicacy, the white dog
of the sahib, you will find them nowadays only as
a rare occurrence, and then their cunning is some-
thing ‘wicked’ from the point of view of their
would-be slayer.
The ,other day it had been noticed that a
leopard had been prowling about a house, with
the obvious hope of sooner or later getting a dog.
Why the dog is such an idiot as to dash out and
bark at a leopard, as they all invariably will,
when one would think that instinct ought to tell
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Pelts
it of its danger, I do not know. It is doubtless the
results of civilization acting on the animal in-
telligence, and causing it to lose what man has so
hopelessly lost, the finer instincts and senses of the
wild animals. My friend having received khubbar
of ‘spots’’ nightly performances, had a bed put
on to the flat roof of his house, and spent a week
of brilliant moonlight nights sitting up for the sly
cat. Needless to say, he never saw a trace of him.
Knowing the house, I often wonder whether friend
pard sat in the shadow of a bamboo clump on the
edge of a nullah situated about 40 yards from
the building, and from that safe vantage-point sur-
veyed my friend’s form silhouetted against the
sky up above him.
Leopards are, of course, often shot in tiger
beats, whether from the howdah, machan, or on
foot, as should they be within the beaten area they
must either try and sneak out at the side, quit it
in front, or lie dogo, which is a favourite trick of
theirs, and let the beat pass over them. Any one
of these proceedings they often accomplish with
safety.
I suppose many a leopard is lost in this way,
often through the carelessness or laziness of the
beaters. When men are employed to beat, the
most stringent orders should be issued that no
bush or tussock of grass is to be passed without
either being beaten with a stick or having stones
or clods of earth thrown into it. In order to en-
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Jungle By-Ways in India
sure the beaters doing this, it is always advisable
to station at intervals in the line orderlies or peons,
or men who can be trusted to see these orders
enforced.
I remember seeing this method of beating
carried out with the most perfect precision and
success during a Christmas shoot in Eastern
Bengal. We were out for what we could get, the
main idea being sambhar, barking deer, and jungle-
fowl (murghis), with pig if one cared to shoot
them, which I did not. My host was a perfect shot,
and one of the coolest hands I have met. I had
knocked over a sambhar, he a pig or two, and
we each had a few birds. The beat was nearing
its close, and as I exchanged the rifle for the
shot-gun, I glanced up the line to where my friend
was stationed.
As I looked, up went his weapon. Before I
heard the report I saw him step sharply back
and fire again rapidly at what looked to me to be
a dark shadow. Then I saw something black
drop at his feet, and his hand went back for his
other weapon, and he covered it and fired again.
The rifle this time, I remember thinking, but I
had not,a notion what the animal was. The beat
ended, I saw my friend wave to me; I went up,
and there lay a fine leopard, and he had killed it
with No. 6. As luck would have it, my friend
had his shot-gun in his hand when, without a
sound, a fine leopard walked out on to the ride
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within fifteen paces of him. He fired without
hesitation, and as the animal rose in its spring at
him he dropped it with the second barrel, which
went into him with all the force of a bullet.
Perhaps the most dangerous weapon to use
against a leopard is one of the small-bore cordite
rifles, dangerous to the owner I mean, not to the
animal. More so-called tiger and leopard acci-
dents have probably happened in recent times
from the use of the small-bore rifles on dangerous
game than from any other cause. The small-bore
has no power to ‘ stop’ a charge of a tiger, leopard,
or bear, and though the animal may be mortally
wounded, he will get home and maul you before
he dies if you are pinning your faith to one of
these weapons and are out on foot.
This is a well-known fact amongst shikari men.
Most own up to its truth, and yet most startling
are the incidents one personally comes across,
hears of, or reads of in the papers. The most ex-
perienced and oldest of shikaris, men who have
shot India’s jungles for thirty years or more, will
fire at a leopard in a beat, wound him, and then
get mauled, or get some one else mauled, which is
worse, just because they could not resist the hope
and off-chance of putting their bullet through the
brain.
And it should be ever borne in mind that the
wounds made by the tiger and leopard are most
dangerous ones, owing to the animals being
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Jungle By-Ways in India
meat-eaters and their teeth leaving in the wounds
a foul poison. Lucky is the man who does not
lose an arm, leg, or his life once he has had a hand-
to-hand tussle with one of the large cats.
‘Spots’ is most often shot over a tied-up living
bait, and the ones most usually used are the village
pi dog or the goat, the latter most commonly.
The procedure is to have a machan built in some
suitable position in the track of the nightly
prowlings of the animal, tie up a goat below, and
then take up your position in the machan and wait.
As leopards often appear early in the evening or
late afternoon, one has to take up one’s position
by three o’clock or so. The idea of the goat is
that once he is tied up alone he will bleat for the
rest of the herd, and so attract the leopard to
the spot. When the goat acts in the manner he
is expected to, the leopard is often attracted as
desired. ‘Spots’ being attracted and seeing the
goat, and ‘spots’ advancing to make him his
prey, are two very different affairs, however.
One has often had one’s hopes aroused by
actually seeing the leopard leave the jungle for
the open, more or less ostentatiously advance
rapidly to a patch of grass and then disappear
from view. One waits with muscles braced and
eye intent on the grass patch for minutes, and one
begins to think hours. Suddenly a movement,
very slight, attracts the eye on the left; one
slowly, imperceptibly turns the head. Are there
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Pelts
two leopards? One could swear the one in the
grass patch is still there. He could not have left,
and yet where does this other one come from ?
Now the latter advances, gliding over the ground ;
stops, turns to the right, and disappears into some
bushes. We sit as silent as a rock, and watch the
grass patch in front since the second leopard is
now behind us. Half an hour passes, and we are
cramped and stiff with silent watching.
A movement on the right. There is the leopard,
about 60 yards off now, and advancing. Fifty,
forty, thirty. He crouches flat on his stomach
and gathers himself for the last rush. Suddenly—
woof. He is about, and in a few beautiful undu-
lating bounds like a streak is in the jungle. Did
he see us really, or has he been playing with us
for the last two or three hours? One has often
wondered.
It is monotonous work, this sitting over goats
for panther. Interesting and exciting for the
tyro, I will admit, and most useful, since machan
work, when one is new to the jungle and jungle
conditions and life, must prove an aid in
training the eye to notice jungle objects, and
absorb and take in without knowing why the
relative colouring and distances and shades and
play of light which are all so new and difficult
to acquire by the town-bred eye.
But after the first few years, and when one
has assimilated all the pleasure that ‘sitting up’
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Jungle By-Ways in India
work can give one, it becomes a tedious method
of sport.
How oft does it end in a mere weariness of the
flesh! To cite one of numerous occasions.
During a jungle-fowl beat one day we got
khubbar of a panther which was committing con-
siderable depredations amongst the goats and
dogs of a certain village. The doctor and self
promised to go out and sit up for him during the
following week, when there would be a moon.
The village was some 8 miles out, at the top of a
pass in the Siwaliks. We took a tea-basket,
drove out, had tea, tossed for the two machans,
situated about a mile apart, and took up our
places. My machan was a couple of hundred yards
from the village, perched in a small tree in the
stony river-bed.
My goat, provided with a large supply of
food by his late and future owner, should he be
left unnoticed by the leopard, sat down soon after
I took possession of my machan and _ began
to feed in a leisurely, contented sort of fashion.
I stood it for an hour or so, and then commenced
to lose my temper. I had paid for this goat to
bleat lustily, while he was quietly enjoying
himself. The moon was only just rising, and so
I dared not make a noise, as the leopard might
be anywhere close for all I knew. I spent the
next hour in endeavouring to the best of my ability
to make that goat yell, and all without success.
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Pelts
Once he raised my hopes by a plaintive bleat,
but he took good care to keep it very plaintive.
We had agreed to sit until 9-30 and then give it
up. That meant nearly five hours in that machan
in company with a silent goat. I threw every-
thing I had on me at the brute, without avail.
Punctually to the minute I crawled down
from my very cold perch, all my extremities
being numbed. The goat met me with a friendly
bleat of welcome and stood up ready to be taken
home. Almost would I have said that the animal
was ‘in it,’ with the villager and the panther,
and that the whole was a put up thing !
Leaving the goat at the village, I went down
the road, and soon saw a dark figure approaching,
cursing volubly. ’Twas the doctor and his goat!
The latter, tied with a piece of rope, was being
dragged along bleating and most reluctant by
the doctor, who was in a vile temper. His
goat apparently had been picketed amongst some
succulent grass on a fire-line in the forest, and
had not once opened its mouth until it was
hurried from its tempting feeding-ground by the
enraged doctor.
Have you ever had the luck to watch a leopard
au naturel in the jungle without his being aware
that you ave watching him? Of course, the only
way to see any wild animal is to see him without
his knowing you are watching him. Once he knows
this, you no longer see the real animal as he is,
we 5 273
Jungle By-Ways in India
Once I had the luck to see a leopard on his own
in the jungle. I was on an elephant in a sal forest
in the Terai, and had no rifle or gun with me.
I was on my way back to Dehra, my head-quar-
ters, from a long tour in Burma, and had taken a
part of Philibhit and Kumaun on my way back.
Commissariat and rifle and cartridge arrangements
had gone wrong, which accounted for my weapon-
less condition. Although I probably lost, owing to
this state of affairs, a fine skin, I cannot regret it,
since I enjoyed an experience I should never have
had had a rifle been in my hand, and my sole
thought been where to place a bullet.
The elephant was moving slowly along through
a fine piece of high tree forest with but a scanty
low undergrowth below it. Suddenly he halted
at a touch from the mahout’s knee, and the
latter looked fixedly at an object ahead.
I followed the direction of his eye, but could
see nothing. Again I glanced at him, and had
another try. But carefully as I searched the
chequered, sunlit floor of the forest in front of
me, I could see nothing worthy of the mahout’s
suppressed excitement. Suddenly I felt a move-
ment behind me. The Gurkha orderly had seen
something, and was obviously muttering and
breathing almost audible curses. The mahout
silently raised his arm close to his body and
pointed with one finger, the hand held close to
his breast, I leant cautiously down and followed
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Pelts
the direction indicated. The finger appeared to
point directly at a fallen tree trunk some 40
yards ahead, which I had already noticed.
The trunk was lying pointing in the direction
we were going, some fallen monarch of the last
monsoon gale, and was in shade with a chequer
ES a
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ea
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KYM KS
A large leopard stretched at length along the tree.
of sunlight along its bole. Again I looked at it
most closely. Surely something moved—some-
thing indistinct and dark and black. Suddenly
I saw it. The whole thing leaped to my eye,
and I realized that I was gazing at a fine large
leopard stretched at length along the bole of the
tree, tail towards us, and head turned watching
the elephant. Not a trace of fear was there about
275
Jungle By-Ways in India
him. Only curiosity to see an elephant in a spot
where he had not expected to see one, for this
locality was rarely visited by wild elephants,
and then only in the rains.
My first feeling was one of wild disappointment
that I had not a rifle with me. As he lay there
he offered the easiest of marks. As I watched him,
however, the feeling gave way to one of pleasure
at thus having the opportunity of studying the
animal in its natural habitat, and acting in a
perfectly natural manner. He had not seen us
on the elephant, and it was very doubtful that he
would, provided we remained absolutely still,
as neither tiger nor leopard nor, in fact, many of
the jungle denizens look far up, and an elephant’s
back appears to be beyond the range of their ken.
Having taken in to the full the beauty of the
lithe cat lying at length on the bole, for all the
world like some cat on the hearthrug in one’s
house, I motioned to the mahout to move slowly
forward. This he did. When we were within
about twenty-five paces the leopard got up,
stretched himself lazily, and sprang lightly down
from the trunk, glanced round at the elephant
again; and slowly trotted off in front of us. We
moved very slowly forward in the same direction.
Every now and then ‘spots’ stopped and half
turned to look at the elephant, and then trotted
on, for all the world like a kitten in a garden.
We went on in this fashion for some 200 yards
276 [
Pelts
or more, and then the animal suddenly dis-
appeared. When we arrived at the spot we saw
that there was a slight drop into a small nullah.
Going down this, we looked up the ravine, and
there, not 30 yards away, was our friend the
leopard again, sitting on his haunches, licking
his paw and cleaning his face. The elephant
halted, and I watched him with great interest.
I could scarcely have credited the fact had I not
seen it myself, that a leopard would have spent
sO many minutes so close to three men and not
have realized their proximity, even though they
were upon an elephant.
That leopard spent some five minutes in his
ablutions, now and then stopping to cast a glance
at the elephant. Then with a final stare he
turned round and trotted off up the ravine, and
disappeared round a corner higher up.
We continued on our way, I well content that
I had not had a rifle with me.
CHAPTER IV
Bear—Habits—An amusing incident—Bear tracks—Size and weight—
Where to find bear—His food—Behaviour when roused—How
to shoot bear—Beating—Machan work—My first beat for bear—
Kols and Santals—Blank beats—Go out after bear again—The
Raja and his subjects—See and miss my first bear—Points to be
remembered—Other ways of getting bear.
BEAR
ERHAPS some of the most amusing
experiences and incidents one meets with
whilst shikaring in India occur during
encounters with bear. The appearance
of the animal himself has something grotesque
and bizarre about it. His small head, pointed
muzzle, little eyes, and long, shaggy-haired, bulky
body give him a comic appearance. Also, when
frightened or intensely savage, he has a habit of
rising on his hind-legs as he nears his foe, which
is apt to exert a quite unwished-for influence
on one’s risible faculties, shaking the aim which
278 :
Pelts
it is of importance should be true and steady
at such a moment.
Intensely ludicrous are some of the stories of
encounters with bear one has heard of at first
hand, or gone through oneself. I suppose no one
who has been out after the animal is without some
funny personal experiences.
At the same time, it must be borne in mind that
a bear is not an animal who can be played with,
nor one to be approached in an over-confident
spirit. In any part of the country where bears
are prevalent, it will only be necessary to go into
a village and take a look at a number of villagers
to see traces, the results of the none too soft em-
braces, of the bears of the neighbourhood.
A bear is a surly, sulky, and most obstinate
animal, and is always unwilling to move off the
road or path he is taking for anything living under
the sun—not even man himself. The conse-
quence is that when he suddenly comes face to
face with a villager on one of the little footpaths
which run from village to village, through forest
or jungle, he more often than not at once gets up
on to his hind-legs and goes for the man. Unless
the latter is armed the result usually turns out
badly for him, as even if he escape with his life
it will be at the expense of a terrible mauling. It
is not an uncommon sight in the jungle villages
to see a man or woman with one side of the face
deeply scarred and withered from the too friendly
279
Jungle By-Ways in India
embraces of Bruin. In this way the animal is a
nuisance to a village, over and above the damage
he does to their crops, such as the sweet succulent
mahwa (Bassia latifolia), maize, etc.
A rather laughable incident of this nature took
place a few years ago in the Darjiling Himalaya.
A young planter was riding back home in the late
evening along a six-foot mountain-path. Coming
sharply round a corner he almost ran into a bear.
Bruin, resenting the intruders and the disturbance
caused by the clatter of the pony’s hoofs, at once
got on to his hind-legs and, going blindly for the
pony, shoved the terrified animal off the road down
the khud side. Luckily for the youngster the
drop was not sheer, but he and the pony rolled
some 50 feet or so down the hill-side before
they fetched up. No damage was done to either,
and the pony was safely got up again. The
youngster, needless to state, was furious, the more
so when an inspection of the bear’s tracks next
morning showed that Bruin had quietly strolled
on his way after the episode. That hot-blooded
and irascible young Scotsman, with beauty gone
(for one side of his face was scarred as if a rake
had been drawn across it) and chaffed out of his
life at every turn, spent the next fortnight roam-
ing the hill-side, breathing fire and brimstone
against all the tribe. His acquaintance was,
however, much too wary to accord him a second
interview !
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Pelts
There is no mistaking the tracks of a bear once
you have seen them, as the animal walks on the
soles of his feet. I show the track of one foot
here.
The common black bear of the plains of India,
the sloth or Indian bear (Melursus ursinus), which
Bear . 4 .
Track of a bear.
is the only bear we shall consider here, is common
throughout the country, from the Himalaya
southwards down into Ceylon. It is to be found
chiefly in the rocky and hilly parts of the country,
and is most numerous in the wilder and jungle-
covered tracts.
The sloth bear has rather a handsome skin of
long black hair, with a white muzzle and claws and
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Jungle By-Ways in India
a white horseshoe mark on the chest. This latter,
by the way, is the place to aim at should a bear
stand up to close with you.
Burke, in the Indian Field Shikar Book, quotes
the largest bear he has record of as 7 feet I inch
in length, with a girth of 4 feet 4? inches. He
gives the average measurements as follows : head
and body from 4 feet 6 inches to 5 feet 8 inches ;
tail, 4 to 5 inches without hair ; height at shoulder,
2 feet 2 inches to 2 feet g inches; weight, 170 to
nearly 800 lbs.
If you want to find Bruin at home you must
repair to the nearest rocky hills in your neighbour-
hood, where, in the daytime, you will probably
find him in the recesses of some dark cave entered
by a tunnel-like black opening in the rock, or by
some cliff or fissure. These caves often have more
than one entrance, so that it is necessary to exer-
cise some caution and circumspection if you do
not want your quarry to escape you. It is here
that the mother brings up her young, which
generally number two, and are born in December
or January, the period of gestation being from
six to seven months. The young ones are blind
for the first three weeks after birth.
The sloth bear does not hibernate in the winter
months. He is nocturnal in his habits, issuing
from his cave retreat in the late evening and re-
turning to it at the earliest dawn. He is a clumsy
and awkward mover, especially when climbing,
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Pelts
but he is marvellously fast down a rocky hill-
side when being beaten out, and can move rapidly
over rocky slopes covered with dead crackly
leaves in a wonderfully silent fashion.
As all know who have ever visited a Zoo,
Bruin is very partial to sweets, and this sweet
tooth of his causes the villager considerable worry
and loss. Any sweet sugar crop that the village
may raise will be taken toll of by the bears of the
neighbourhood, and owing to their obstinate and
irascible dispositions they are very naturally
greatly feared by the villager, a fact they appear to
be perfectly well aware of.
If I were to be asked, I should say that any
form of sweet article, such as the sweet fruits of
forest trees and shrubs, any sweet crop culti-
vated by the villager, such as sugar-cane, maize,
etc., honey and many kinds of insects, form the
staple food of the sloth bear. Amongst insects the
white ant or termite stands out as a favourite
dish. Bruin digs these latter out of the ant heaps,
his remarkable powers of inhaling and propelling
air enabling him to suck up the tiny termites from
their galleries. He is also partial to the juice of
sweet barked trees, and will often girdle and kill
a tree by scratching off the bark with his powerful
claws to get at the sweet green succulent bast
layer on the inside.
On the whole, the animal is not difficult to ap-
proach, provided one remembers to keep the
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©
Jungle By-Ways in India
wind blowing from his direction to your own, since
his powers of sight are poor, as also those of hearing.
His one good sense is that of smell, which is acute.
Whether the bear is timid or brave I will leave
to the individual experiences of sportsmen to
decide for themselves. Bruin behaves in such
very different fashions on different occasions that
for the life of me I would not like to set down here
an opinion on his character in this respect ; for
in many cases it would certainly be an aspersion
to call him a coward.
I fancy, to a very considerable extent, his actions
and attitude depend largely upon the mood in
which one comes across him. The meekest and
most timid man when irritated and annoyed
shows moments of unexpected bravery, and
Bruin, so far as my experience goes, is very often
irritated and annoyed. Such a little thing puts
him out !
For instance, as we have seen, he does not like
being suddenly met on a path and asked to get
out.of the way ; nor is he partial to being hooted
at and forced to take a different road home in
the morning to his accustomed one (after all,
many of us are like this ourselves!) ; and he likes
very much less being disturbed by crackers and
squibs during his midday siesta chez lut.
I have no doubt that on the whole he is a more
or less peaceably inclined, sedate old gentleman
if allowed to have things his own way, but when
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Pelts
one is shikaring him he is not exactly having
things as he likes, and that probably accounts for
his irascibility of temper.
The two most ordinary ways of getting bear are
either to beat them out of their rocky homes
in the daytime, or to sit up near the caves before
daybreak to get a shot as Bruin is returning home
from his nightly forays, or in the afternoon in
the hope that he will leave his retreat before dark.
To me these latter are the most fascinating
methods of tackling him. There is always the
off-chance of a close tussle, and whilst waiting
silently in one’s stand there is usually an interest-
ing amount of small life to study if one keeps
absolutely still.
Beating is often had recourse to in Central
India, and if a succession of beats over rocky hills
can be arranged for, a very jolly day can be
passed, and one not unlikely to be full of incident
if one is on foot and not safely ensconced in a
machan in a tree.
I remember the very first beat I took part
in in India was for bear (with a possible tiger),
and great was my excitement at the thought that
I was at last to see one at least of the more
dangerous animals of the Indian fauna.
A party of five of us left the station soon after
dawn one morning early in March, and rode
and drove out some 16 miles, finishing the re-
maining 4 miles on an elephant. On arriving at
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Jungle By-Ways in India
the meeting-place we found about one hundred
villagers collected, but that was all. We required
some four hundred, and so I, as the griffin, was
told off to inspect the commissariat whilst our
senior interviewed the elders of the village as to
the cause of the delay.
After the usual heated discussion and protesta-
tions had taken place, we sat down in the grateful
shade and made a good breakfast. By the end
a considerable portion of the stipulated number
of men had arrived, and having tossed for machans,
we took up our positions. I can remember now as
fresh as if it were yesterday, the feelings which
animated me as I climbed into No. 2 machan,
situated some 25 feet up ina small tree. I could
scarcely believe that at last I was to fulfil an
ambition of my boyhood and really occupy a
machan, and have the luck to shoot something
big.
Having loaded up, I waited, quaking with
eagerness. A low hill clothed with scattered
scrub jungle and small trees faced me. Half-
way up, just in front of my position, a mass of
rocks and caves were situated. These I thought
might contain anything. Suddenly a distant
sound—the beat had commenced. The noise
grew louder and louder, and at last I spied some
tiny figures up against the skyline. They were
the beaters !
Down they came, springing from rock to rock
286 *
THE COMMON BLACK OR SLOTH BEAR OF THE PLAINS
A BEAUTIFUL SHOOTING COUNTRY IN THE CENTRAI, PROVINCES
Pelts
and boulder to boulder with the agility of moun-
tain goats. As they came on they struck the
trunks of the trees with their small axes, or
flogged the dense, thorny thickets. Kols and
Santals these men consisted of, merry fellows
who jested and joked and laughed as they came
forward. Deadly with the bow and arrow or
their little axes are these jungle men, as many
a hare or small mammal getting up in these
beats has found to its cost. Their little axe they
can throw with an incredibly unerring dexterity
worthy of Cooper’s Red Indians.
Any trivial incident was enough to amuse the
beaters in front of me, and to provoke a roar of
laughter. The whole idea of a beat to them was
pure pleasure. Down they came. Now they
had reached the caves. Volleys of stones and
curses were hurled into the cave openings, but
to my intense chagrin nothing save two owls
emerged, and the beat ended blank !
The next beat was about 14 miles away, and
we climbed on to the elephant to take us there.
On arriving at our destination, we found two
machans crowning the crest of a low-topped hill,
which formed the outlying spur from a much
higher range, the others being placed down its
flank. The idea was, I understood, to beat out
some caves on the higher hill and drive the bears
past the machans situated from top to bottom
of the lower spur. My lot gave me the upper-
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Jungle By-Ways in India
most machan. It consisted of a few scanty sticks
in a low tree, and I spent the next two hours
perched in the fork of the tree about 9 feet from
the ground in the hot afternoon sun. Long
before the ordeal was over I had come to the
conclusion that machan shooting was awful
rot, and that an afternoon March sun in Chota
Nagpur was a thing to be respected.
The sum total of that beat was two pea-fowl
seen! We had then over 20 miles to get back
to the station before dinner could be partaken
of!
So ended my first day’s beating in India, and
looking back in the light of some considerable
experience, it is not difficult to put one’s finger
on the reasons for its total failure.
We had gone out solely on some khubbar
which was subsequently found to have no founda-
tion save that of native rumour and gossip.
Once upon a time, in the memory of prehistoric
man, there had been bear, or a bear, in the
hills we had beaten, and it was on this handed-
down tradition that we had gone out. One
might just as well take an 8-bore rifle, sit in a
London park, and expect a rhinoceros to come
out of the nearest rhododendron clump !
The next attempt to meet Bruin, at which I
was present, was more successful.
A few weeks after the fiasco above related,
four of us set out one afternoon to drive and ride
288 ®
Pelts
to a small native state situated some 30 miles
away on the borders of the district. We had
had one or two showers of rain, the forerunners
of the monsoon, and the air was wonderfully
cool, after our recent experiences in the station
of 117° in the shade!
We were all in high spirits at getting away
from the station again out to camp, and the last
dak, which we all rode, was a glorious one, the
road taking us out of the wide plain through
wild and rugged rocky hills which had a most
‘bearish’ look about them. Of vegetation they
were innocent. Black and dark and forbidding,
they stood out against the flaring, flaming red
of the sunset in the west, whilst to the east, blue
and purple in the distance, lay a long mountain
crest known as the Golden Range, at the time
unpleasantly connected in people’s minds with
the Bengal Gold and Silver Bubble.
Oh, the sunsets of the East! Can skill with
pen or brush ever pourtray them in anything
like their wonderful intensity ? Ephemeral they,
for as one strives with strained and fixed gaze
to take in all their beauty, lo! they change and
melt, soften and disappear, and leave us with cold
greys or blues or blacks.
We reached camp at 7 p.m., and were a merry
party at dinner that night. The next morning
an early start was made for the second camp,
which had been pitched by our hosts, the tents
U 289
Jungle By-Ways in India
being reached at 9g a.m. Finding we had some
two hours to spare two of us went to a neigh-
bouring tank where we were told duck were in
abundance. The duck proved to be cotton-teal,
and these and some green pigeon kept us at work
for an hour, and enabled us to provide a change
from the everlasting murghi of the khansammah.
We were recalled at the end of this period,
and started off on elephants for the hills to be
beaten, which were situated some 4 miles away.
The scene round the tents, which was fully
displayed to my wondering and unaccustomed
eyes from the top of the elephant, simply beggared
description. The three large tents, pitched under
the shade of the trees, looked white and cool
against the dark green. Near us the Raja, with
a son and nephew, each with a golden crown (of
tinselled paper!) on his head, were mounting
a female elephant, gorgeous in state trappings.
Round the old female a youngster, born in
captivity, was frisking and gambolling about
to the extreme discomfiture of the heir to the
State gadi, who was seated astride the buttcha,
his long legs dangling down below the youngster’s
ears. | There was no mahout, as the heir himself
occupied this position, and his attempts to keep
alike his dignity and his golden crown, whilst
every fresh gambol of the playful youngster
nearly lost him both, were ludicrous.
From this amusing spectacle one’s gaze wan-
299, e
Pelts
dered to the multitude around. The golden
scabbarded sword of state of the Raja was carried
behind him by a purple and gold-coated gentle-
man, destitute of nether garments. Close along-
side were borne by other similar coated gentry
the lighted hookahs of royalty, these being
periodically called up and a few puffs taken by
the royal lips.
Amongst the Raja’s loyal subjects who thronged
around, mostly very inadequately attired with a
strip of waist-cloth, every conceivable weapon
under the sun was represented. Here a Bengali
babu was to be seen, dressed in snowy-white
muslin, his shirt-tail given to the breeze, and his
lower extremities decked in white socks, kept
up by suspenders, and patent leather shoes. In
his hands he gingerly carried a double-barrelled
rifle, and had all the appearance of being ex-
tremely uncomfortable under his burden. Cheek
by jowl wild jungle wallahs were jostling one
another, clothed in a loin-cloth and armed with
axe, spear, bow and arrow, or three-pronged
trident fork. Others, the shikaris of the com-
munity, had ancient firelocks and muskets, and
blunderbusses, some looking like small cannon,
with here and there a bayonet fixed to the muzzle.
Quaint-looking curved swords and daggers and
curious spear-heads were visible on all sides—
enough to completely glut the antique shops of
all London! And yet absurdly out of date as
291
Jungle By-Ways in India
these weapons were, their owners loved them,
and trusted to them and could not be induced
to part.
Surrounded by this unique assemblage, all in
the highest spirits, we started for the machans.
Half-way the beaters left us, and at about I p.m.
we reached the first of the machans. The Raja’s
staff had taken unusual trouble over these. The
sporting sahib is usually content with a small
platform fixed to a couple of stout branches of a
tree, with a few green branches placed round the
sides to serve as a screen. Not so the Raja’s
people! Each machan had a pointed roof to it,
walls at the sides with large windows, and a
small door at the bottom through which pro-
jected a ladder by which one ascended. The
whole thing was built of green boughs. Beautiful
leafy bowers these, in one of which the Raja
doubtless intended to enjoy his afternoon siesta,
what time the incomprehensible sahib-log worried
themselves about the shooting.
We tossed for machans to the Raja’s discomfi-
ture, for was it not only in the fitness of things
that the District Burra Sahib should have the
best, and had it not been all so arranged! I, the
junior of the party, won the best. A small nullah
ran close by it, down which a panther would be
certain to try and sneak should there be one in
the beat. So I was warned.
I climbed up into my machan with one atten-
292 =
Pelts
dant and settled myself to my satisfaction, and
shortly afterwards the beat commenced. Two
shots followed one another in rapid succession
away to the right. I was all attention, but nothing
passed me. I subsequently learnt that these shots
were fired by A——. As he was settling down in
his machan he heard a rustle, and turning casually
he saw a bear stroll out of the jungle. He was so
flabbergasted at the unexpected sight that he did
not seize his rifle till the animal was some way off,
and then missed.
Thad sat patiently for some one and a half hours
when I heard a pattering rustle, and out walked a
fine peacock. Cocking his eye all round, he made
up his mind that all was safe and scurried away,
passing beneath my machan. As the beaters were
now near I thought I might as well have a shot
at a bird should one appear at the end of the
beat, and so I slipped a shot-cartridge into the
second barrel of the smooth-bore. Bitterly did
I regret this later. Shortly afterwards I felt a
touch on my arm, and turning my head I saw
a bear—the first wild bear I had ever seen in its
native jungles—bolting past my machan. Had
my companion been awake instead of half asleep,
he could have warned me of the animal’s ap-
proach long before it got near the machan. Before
I had recovered from my surprise, not only at
seeing the animal but also at the marvellously
silent manner in which Bruin was getting over
293
Jungle By-Ways in India
the dry leaf-covered ground, it had disappeared
into the small nullah. As the bear emerged on the
far side I fired the right barrel of the smooth-bore
which I had in my hand. It contained a Meade’s
shell, and Bruin answered to the shot with a
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Saw a bear bolting past my machan.
growl, and appeared to climb the rocky hill like
a mountain-goat. So excited was I that without
a thought I fired my left barrel at him—a charge
of No. 4 shot at a bear 50 yards away! Throwing
the smooth-bore away, I seized the rifle and blazed
off both barrels at the retreating black object as
he neared the top of the hill, from 150 to 200 yards
away. Needless to say, and for my own future
294
Pelts
gain, I missed with both barrels. So far as my
limited acquaintance with my companion’s lan-
guage enabled me to do so, I understood him to say
that the bear was badly hit, and that we should
get him. I awaited the termination of the beat
in a state of wild excitement, and as soon as
permission was accorded I scrambled down from
the machan and we commenced a search for
blood. A drop or two was found, but that was
all, and after the expenditure of much valuable
time in deference to the excited wishes of the
tyro, for most of the rest must have known that
we should never see that bear again, as he was
probably only grazed, we went on to beat No. 2.
My feelings will be understood by most sports-
men, and the lesson served me in excellent stead in
the future. I learnt one of the first fundamental
rules of the sportsman during a beat. Never let
your attention flag for a single instant, for if you
do, assuredly will you lose what will perhaps be
your one good chance of the day.
I secured no bear that day. I had had and
lost my chance. Several were bagged, however,
and I scored up in my memory for future occa-
sions three facts: the first, that a bear appears
to be so much larger an object, and consequently
easier to hit, than he is in reality, owing to his
thick coat of long hair; the second, that the
animal can come down a rocky hill with incredible
swiftness, bounding or rather rolling down from
295
Jungle By-Ways in India
rock to rock with a curious rolling gallop like some
stout ship in half a gale in the Atlantic ; thirdly,
that Bruin can get over dry crackly leaves with
a celerity and quietness that has to be seen to be
credited.
I have alluded to the other methods of bagging
bear—that of waiting for them near their caves,
either in the morning or evening, or of beating
them out of their caves in the daytime by means
of squibs and crackers and tackling them on foot.
Most of my experiences in this line have been
in the Himalaya, and in some Himalayan sketches
I may perhaps deal with this interesting, and at
times exciting, sport in the future.
Enough has been said to show that Bruin offers
sport of a satisfying nature, and one that often
has in it that spicy element of danger which forms
the fascination of our shikar outings in the East.
For the naturalist and he who loves to study the
habits of jungle animals, the bhalu is ever worth
watching when one can do it unbeknown to the
animal himself. He appears to take life so ex-
tremely seriously that his very seriousness has in
it an element of farce.
\
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CHAPTER V
Hyena, jackal, and wila dog—Jackal—Habits—A useful scavenger
—Pelt—The hyzena—Distribution and habits—Food—Cowardly
nature—Hyzena pugs—Hyzna in a beat—Wild dog—A game-
destroyer—Distribution—Methods of hunting game—Immune to
poison—Should be shot on sight.
HYANA, JACKAL, AND WILD DOG
LTHOUGH the hyena (Hyena striata),
jackal (Camis aureus), and wild dog
(Cyon dukhunenstis) yield no trophies,
as the word is commonly accepted
amongst sportsmen, a book dealing with the larger
animals of India’s jungles would scarcely be
complete without a mention being made of these
common inhabitants of the country’s vast waste
tracts. Amongst the three the wild dog assumes
a pre-eminence, and is known to every shikari,
owing to the very large mortality it causes
297
Jungle By-Ways in India
amongst the deer tribes. An area which a pack
of this animal is quartering will soon become
gameless so far as the more defenceless portion of
the animal fauna is concerned, for the timid deer
appear to become instinctively aware of the
neighbourhood of such a scourge to their peace
and happiness, and make haste to leave so danger-
ous a neighbourhood.
The pelts of all these three animals will probably
soon become known to the tyro in search of sport
in India’s jungles. One, indeed, he will meet long
ere he ever sees a jungle, for the jackal we have
ever with us; he is equally at home in a great
city like Calcutta as he is out in the wild fast-
nesses of the country.
Little mention need be made of him here.
Scavenger he is par excellence, and a cowardly
scavenger at that. His pelt, thick and of a
beautiful rich yellow-red colour, resembling the
better type of village pz dog, is handsome if taken
in the cold weather. When properly cured, a
number of their skins can be turned into a not
inelegant and most useful carriage-rug.
Next to his scavenging habits the jackal is
chiefly known to India’s sportsmen as providing
a substitute for the fox for the numerous Hunts
established all over the country, and many an
excellent run have we had for the brush of this
fleet-footed beast.
The other two animals I have alluded to differ
298 2
Pelts
from the jackal, in that they are not found near
the populous abodes of man.
The hyzena or striped hyzena, the lakkar bagh of
the native of Upper India, is common throughout
the country, affecting the hilly, open country, and
being comparatively rare in the great forests. He
is most abundant perhaps in North-west and Cen-
tral India. The animal chiefly frequents rocky
hills and dark deep ravines, and conceals itself in
the daytime in caves or in holes dug by itself. It
comes out at night to hunt for its food, which
consists chiefly of carrion.
When he gets the chance he will pull down
sheep and dogs and goats, but his cowardly
nature usually prevents him enjoying these dain-
ties as often as he would like.
The hyzna has rather a handsome striped pelt,
grey, with narrow transverse, black or tawny
stripes both on body and legs. It stands high in
front with a crest and mane, and has extremely
powerful jaws and teeth. The animal measures
about 3 feet 6 inches, with a tail of r foot 6 inches,
and weighs 60 to 80 Ibs. Its excreta are curious,
as they are principally composed of bony frag-
ments which dry into hard balls.
The hyzna’s peculiar, harsh, strident laugh is
well known to all jungle lovers; but is apt
to get on the nerves when one is out in camp
by oneself and afflicted with an attack of the
blues.
‘299
Jungle By-Ways in India
Its pugs as shown here are very like a dog’s.
I have often come across this animal in beats.
Quite recently two of us were sitting on a forest
line hoping for a stag chitul, or sambhar, when
my friend suddenly fired two shots. I looked
up to my right, and there, jumping down the line
towards me, was what I took to be a panther.
Pugs of hyzena.
I fired a barrel at him rather hurriedly, and then
a second when he was within 30 yards. The
second shot dropped him, and reloading, I slowly
advanced. The ride was in deep shadow, as it
was still early morning ; but surely, I thought,
that can’t be a leopard. Suddenly the animal
half raised himself up, and I saw the gleam of
a pair of wicked-looking fangs, a tremendous crest,
and two ugly-looking green eyes. It was a hyzena.
The wild dog is by no means so widely dis-
300 i
Pelts
tributed or so commonly met with as the two
animals above described. Nor does he come
under the head of a scavenging animal. We all
wish he did! Probably not even the native
shikari himself commits as much damage to
the herbivorous fauna of India, and especially
amongst the deer tribe, as does this pest. One
has often been tempted to wonder why the
animal was ever placed in its position in the
scheme of nature.
The junglt kutia, as the natives call him in the
north, is chiefly confined to the large forest
tracts of the country, where he usually roams
about in parties and hunts down his quarry.
Most sportsmen are familiar with his procedure.
On putting up a deer, a few of the pack get on
to his tracks and run him hard. Most deer run in
circles, and the rest of the pack take a short cut
so as to relieve their companions when they are
blown. The chase is thus carried on till the
wretched deer is at last run into and pulled
down. Or if a stag, till he comes to bay in some
rocky ravine, where, knee-deep in the stream,
he fights his last gallant fight, and probably sends
some of his enemies to their happy hunting
grounds before following to his own.
The wild dog resembles a village #7. He is
rusty-red or brownish grey in colour, and has
a good pelt in winter. The head, properly set up,
makes rather a good trophy. —
301
Jungle By-Ways in India
The animal breeds in winter, the period of
gestation being sixty-three days, and their young
are sooty-black.
In the mating season the animal is found in
pairs, and on other occasions may be occasionally
found singly.
Many shikaring men always shoot a wild dog
on sight, and there can be little doubt that
much more could be done if men only took a
little trouble. Poison appears to be perfectly
useless. Several officers of the Forest Service in
the Central Provinces, have carried out a number
of most interesting experiments with strychnine,
with the object of lessening the seriously increas-
ing numbers of the animal in that province.
They have proved almost if not entirely abortive.
The dog, after eating heavily of a poisoned
carcass, merely vomits up the whole of his meal,
and goes on his nefarious way without further
ill effects.
Poison is apparently useless. Therefore I
proffer to the true sportsman, as a last word
to these notes, the earnest advice: Shoot a wild
dog on sight, and, whenever possible, take the
trouble to go a little out of your way, if by doing
so you get the chance thereby of destroying a
litter.
THE END.
INDEX
Acacia Catechu, 5
Albino chitul doe, 48
Antelope, Indian, 176
Antilope cervicapra, 4
Antlers, xxi, 1
Ants, 16
Apis dorsata, 16
Bamboo growth, 68, 102
Barasingha, 4, 30
— ‘closed’ to shooting, 44
— herd, alarm of, 35
— stag, 32, 38, 42, 48
— — size of horns and weight
of, 36
Barasingha, young stags spar-
ring, 41
Barking deer, 4, 13, 79, 193
— — distribution of, 80
— — mouth of, 81
— — size of horns and weight,
80
— — young of, 82
Bassia latifolia, 280
Bat, curious red jungle, 222
Bear, character of, 279, 284
— experiences with, 286
— food of, 283
— habits of, 282
— how to shoot, 285
Index
Bear, Indian, 278
— I see my first, 294
— period of gestation and num-
ber of young ones, 282
— size of, 282
Beat, how to, 19
Beating in Northern India
jungles, 18
Bees, 16
Beetles, curious desert, 203
Bishu, the bison tracker, 107,
IO, 117, 120, 123
Bison, 101, 104
— a herd of, 123, 133
— bull, 102, 122, 134, 151, 170
— — size of horns, 105
— death of the bull, 160
— distribution of, 104
— first experiences with, 107
— follow a wounded, 125
— gestation of, 105
— habits of, 104, 105
— herd charges, The, 146
— in Malabar, 136
— kill my first, 134
— my tussle with the bull, 151
— saw my first bull, 119
— tracking, 110, 111
Black buck, 4, 14, 86, 174, 176,
193, 195
— — and doe at play, 179
— — and elephants, 14, 182
— — beauty of, 177
—-—colour, size of heads,
weight of, 177
— — horned females, 99, 177
Black buck, methods of shoot-
ing, 180
— — stalking, 181
Blue bull, 4, 21, 183
Boar, wild, 9, 23, 114
Bos gaurus, 104
Bustard, Greater, 203
Butea frondosa, 187
Canis aureus, 297
Central Provinces bison coun-
try, 112
— — country, 187
Cervis axts, 4
— duvaucellt, 4
— porcinus, 4,75
— unicolor, 4
Cervulus muntjac, 4, 79
Chinkara, 193, 195
— colour, distribution and
food, 196
— horns of, 196
— stalking, 197
Chitul, 4, 9, 11, 20, 21, 25, 31,
32, 44, 89, 243
— size of horns and weight of,
46, 48
— stag, 44, 46, 48, 49, 5t
Chota Nagpur bison country, 112
Close seasons, 46
Cross-bill, 17, 21
Cyon dukhunensts, 297
Dalbergia Sissoo, 5
Desert scenery, fascination of,
201
Dhak tree, 187
304 +
Index
Elephant, face to face with a
bull, 130
— meet a bull, 127, 128
— the howdah, 6, 7, 213
— the pad, 7, 9
Elephants, beating, 216
— for tiger shooting, 214
Eupodotis Edwardst, 203
Felis pardus, 260
Felis tigris, 213
Ficus religiosa, 108
Fire protection of the forests, 64
Four-horned antelope, 4, 193,
201
— — size of horns and weight
of, 195
Fox, 87
Game sanctuaries, 65
Gara or kill, the, 238
Gaur, IoI, 104, 105
Gayal, 104
Gazella bennett, 195
Gazelle, Indian, 195
Grass jungle, 5, 8, 213
Habits of animals, knowledge
of, 86
Hare, 13
Himalayan foot hills, 5, 19, 215
Hog deer, 4, 13, 75
— — distribution of, 76
— — or para, size of horns, 76
— — shooting, 76
Horns, xxii, 99
— shedding of, xviii, 46
x
Hyzena, 297, 299
—— appearance of, 299
— habits and distribution, 299
Hyena striata, 297
Illustrations, list of, xxv
Insect life, 17, 219
Jackal, 87, 243, 297
-— pelt of, 298
‘Jungle eye,’ the, 7
— fowl, 8, 26, 28
— men and their weapons, 291
— sheep, 4
Jungh kutta, 301
Kakar, 4, 13, 79
Khair, 5, 215
Lakkar bagh, 299
Lizards, 17, 219
Leopard, 5, 12, 29, 260
— abundance of, 266
— colour of, 261
— craftiness of, 261
— distribution of, 263
— meet a leopard in the forest,
274
— period of gestation and
number of cubs, 264
— shot with No. 6, 268
— sitting up and tying up, 263,
270
— size of, 264
Lunch-basket carrier, the, 29,
229
Lungoor, 113
305
Index
Machan, the, 242, 252
Mahwa, 280
Mango tree, 123
Melursus ursinus, 281
Memphis, bulls of, 103
Mithan, ror, 105
— size of horns and distribu-
tion, 106
Monkeys, 88, 113
— panchayit, the, 92
Mouse deer, 83
— — size, appearance, and
weight of, 83
Nilga', 4, 21, 183
— awkward gait of, 184
— go out to shoot a, 186
— size of horns and appearance,
184
BZeophylla smaragdina, 16
Panther, 5, 12, 29, 260
Para, 4, 13, 75, 76
‘Pard,’ 260
Partridges, 8, 28
Pea fowl, 8, 26, 28, 293
— —~ calling when a tiger is
about, 243, 248
Pelts, xxiil, 207
Pig, 9, 23, 114, 243
Pipal tree, 108
Portax pictus, 4, 183
Quail, 8
Raja’s camp, the, 290
Ravine deer, 195
Rifles at full cock, care of, 16
— cocking hammers of heavy,
169
— small bore, for dangerous
game, 269
Rutting season of spotted deer,
48
Sal, 5
Salt licks, sitting over, 66
Sambhar, 4, 5, 9, 26, 31, 54, 243
— colour of, 56
—- does, 55
— mother and youngster, 59
— stag, 62
— — a tramp for the old, 69
— — size of horns and weight,
58, 59, 68
— stags, curious heads of, 73,74
— — wariness of, 63, 66
— stalking of old stags, 67, 68
Scuts of barasingha, 30
— of chitul does, 53
— of sambhar does, 58
Shikari, village or native, 64,
211, 238, 239
Shisham, 5, 214, 215
Shooting from the howdah and
pad, 7
— in Northern India jungles, 3
— tips, 169
Shorea robusta, 5
Siwaliks country, 5
Sloth bear, 281
Snake, Shikari bitten by, 114
Snakes, 17
306 :
Index
‘Spots,’ 5, 12, 29, 243, 260, 264
Spotted deer, 4, 9, 11, 20, 21,
25, 31, 32; 44
Stalking, difficulties of, 85
Stops, 241
Storm, a sudden thunder, 118
‘Stripes,’ 5, 209
Subaltern’s delight, the, 263
Tetracerus quadricornts, 4
Tiger, 5, 12, 209
—agallant, 224
— beating out a cur, 225
— —— in the Central -Pro-
vinces, 240
— — with a line of elephants,
209, 213
— Government rewards for, 239
— how to beat for, 211
— man-eating, 239
— meet a tiger on the prowl,
245
— my first, 252
— period of gestation and num-
ber of cubs, 213
— pugs of, 211, 212, 250
— size of and how to measure,
213
— the cattle lifter, 251
— tying up and sitting up for,
237, 242, 251
Tracking experiences, 138
— marvellous, 1ro
Tracks of barasingha, 37
Tracks of barking deer or
kakar, 81
— — bear, 281
— — bison or gaur, 115, 116
— --— black buck, 183
— —chinkara or Indian gaz-
elle, 201, 202
— — chitul, 47
— — four-horned antelope, 194
— — hog deer or para, 78
— — hyena, 300
— — nilgai, 190
— — sambhar, 57, 67, 72
— — tiger, 212, 250
— — wild boar, 24
Tragulus minimus, 83
Trees, damage to by deer,
38, 71
Tropical forest in the monsoon,
137
Velvet, horns in, 45
Villagers, importance of con-
ciliating, 185
Vultures, 243, 244
Wild dog, 297, 300, 301
— — distribution and appear-
ance of, 301
— — habits, 301
— — period of gestation and
young, 302
Woodpecker, 17
Wounds from tiger and leopard,
dangerous nature of, 270
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