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Cornell University Library
Ithaca, Nem York

BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE

FISKE ENDOWMENT FUND

THE BEQUEST OF

WILLARD FISKE

LIBRARIAN OF THE UNIVERSITY 1868-1883

1905

Cornell University Libra

TT

Cornell University

Library

The original of this book is in
the Cornell University Library.

There are no known copyright restrictions in
the United States on the use of the text.

http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924016409793

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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
xB Mee TN la
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

PAGE
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81

82
84
85
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99
Iol

106
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122
124
129
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134
135
136
143
154
169

172
175
176
179
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. <A few
barasingha does soon approached the edge of the
forest, and scouted about just inside, a practice
followed by most of the deer tribe before coming
out into the open. Indistinctly in the leafy bower
I could see a few stags engaged in a similar oper-
ation. Once, however, they had made up their
minds that all was safe, the whole herd tramped
noisily out over the dead leaves, for all the world
like a troop of New Forest ponies. They poured
out of the forest in a manner totally dissimilar
to the usual procedure of a herd of chitul, who

31

Jungle By-Ways in India

always loiter out, the stags coming last, and often
taxing one’s patience severely. -

I have noticed also that a barasingha herd is
often led by the largest stag, which is also unusual,

The old Barasingha stag led the way.

for the large stag of the chitul generally in my
experience stalks out majestically by himself,
some time after his harem have got well out into
the open and begun to graze.

Not so the barasingha. The old stag in the
herd I watched proudly led the way, and when well

32

*

Antlers

clear of the forest stood erect, a glorious figure of
expectancy and suspicion, as he scanned every
inch of the open country and snuffed up the
wind. Seeing and scenting nothing suspicious, he
stalks onwards. Suddenly one of the does emits
a startled yelp, that peculiar, harsh sound of the
barasingha which is totally unlike the sharp
note of the chitul. The stag comes to an abrupt
halt, and up goes his head again, and he stands
like a statue cast in bronze. A long and more
suspicious wait this time, and I feel rather than |
see his eye in my direction. I scarcely breathe,
and remain as inert as the rock upon which I am
seated. At last he feels absolutely certain that all
is safe, and then he takes a few quick majestic
strides into the open, lowers his great head, and
commences to crop the sweet-scented grass. No
more notice is now taken by the lord of the herd
and the chota sahebs—for some half-dozen other
stags with horns of various sizes are in attendance
on the old one—of the cries of the giddy, suspicious,
and frolicsome young females, though a young
stag will be found ready to ogle and have a sly
frolic with a handsome young doe of the harem
if he can compass such with safety ; for he has a
very wholesome and natural respect for those
mighty antlers carried by his lord and master.

I was surprised to find these stags still with the
does, as it was already near the end of April, at
which period the stags are usually in small parties

D 33

Jungle By-Ways in India
by themselves, the large herds consisting entirely
of old and young does and immature stags.

As I sat an interested spectator of this great
herd, which numbered some fifty individuals,
and there may have been more, a sudden sharp
note came into the squeak of one of the does.
The old stag threw up his noble head in sharp

t !
oa IVrw
ed, ey WA

es

@ sad,
ang vith,

Herd of Barasingha leaving the forest to graze.

annoyance, and if ever a stag swore deeply the
patriarch not 40 yards from me did so. Here
he was, in a beautiful secluded forest-encircled
green nook, just commencing his evening meal
on his favourite sweet-scented pasture, and those
pestilent females persisted in sounding the note of
alarm. ‘ What can they mean ?’ he muttered, as
other does caught up and gave out the alarm
signal. Some of the does began edging off towards
the forest; one or two of the smaller stags ex-
hibited evident signs of uneasiness! The great stag
34

*

Antlers

was too old a campaigner to despise the warnings.
He advanced a few paces and struck his forefoot
in anger into the turf. Suddenly he turned to
stone. Then a short, sharp, deep bark, and the
herd turned as one and melted into the forest,
with a patter as of a storm wind blowing through
thick, dead leaves.

It is a pretty sight to watch this sudden alarm
of a herd. ro are all, save for a restless spirit or

i

A number of pairs of bat-like ears.

two, silently feeding like a herd of grazing cows
in a home paddock in Old England, or like the
deer in Richmond or Windsor Park, which any
Londoner will have seen. Suddenly up and round
come all the heads. A few will close up and front
forward, and you see over the top of the grass
a number of pairs of large, bat-like ears, all flung
forward so as to expose the light-coloured inner
portion. A long, much-elongated, lean neck
will be seen below the higher pairs of ears, a pair
of eyes between the ears, and a soft muzzle.
Watch! Not a movement is to be seen, not a
flicker of an eyelid nor twitch of an car. The herd
35

Jungle By-Ways in India

is turned to stone. Like statues they will stand for
minutes together in this alert manner. Suddenly
one emits a startled hoarse croak, round they
swing, and the herd melts away like the fall of
autumn leaves. Occasionally a barasingha stag
will stand his ground until the herd has almost
disappeared ; but this is rarely the case with the
chitul stag. He generally leads the van in a
sudden retreat.

No beautiful springy bounds are to be seen such
as those marvellous little animals, the black buck,
present to your incredulous eyes when they move
off, although both barasingha and chitul does do
jump a bit, especially when retreating in long
grass, so as to be able to see about them.

It is astonishing, too, what bounds the heavy
barasingha and the lighter-built chitul stags, with
their heavy heads of antlers, can compass when
they try.

A barasingha stag in good condition weighs
on an average 32 stone, whilst anything measuring
35 inches and above is considered a good head.
The horns are smooth, the brow tine being nearly
at right angles to the beam. The record head for
the Central Provinces is 41 inches, whilst in the
United Provinces 36 inches is quoted as a record.
An average head is 30 inches round the curve, and
5 inches at midbeam. The points in the horns
vary a good deal, it being a common thing to
secure a head carrying more points on the one

36

Antlers

side than on the other. As many as 20 points
have been counted on a head. The average height

Fore + hina

fr i

(i fi
I}
‘ A de

Tracks of Barasingha.

at the shoulder is 45 inches, the length 6 feet, and
tail 8 inches.

Have you ever examined the tracks of bara-
singha? I show some here. They are broader
than those of the chitul, and can be distinguished
easily from these latter.

37

Jungle By-Ways in India

THE MIDDAY SIESTA—-BARASINGHA

Few people are probably aware how terribly
destructive deer can be in a forest. It is not only
the damage they do to the trees in feeding upon
the buds and young leaves and leading shoots of
young saplings, or in breaking them down, though
German Forest Officers have to suffer considerable
damage and heart-burnings from this source;
especially in those areas, such as in Saxony and
other parts where the Royal Command _ neces-
sitates a certain head of deer being kept up in the
Royal Forests for sporting purposes.

Out in India, at present, at any rate, the chief
damage done is due to barking young trees and
saplings. It is commonly known that whilst the
horns are in velvet a certain amount of itching
makes itself felt when the horn has become pakka,
and the velvet is beginning to peel off. To allay
this irritation the stag rubs his horns against
young trees, and in doing so peels the bark off
them, thus killing them. But this rubbing the
horns against trees under the exigencies of pain is
the only plea the stag can put forward to exculpate
himself from this propensity of his.

I was watching a herd of barasingha the other
day slowly leaving an open grassy area for the
shade of a fine old forest monarch, depicted here,
which stood on the edge of the forest. The dense
shade afforded by this fine old tree was evidently a

38 ;

Antlers

favourite noonday siesta site for this herd from the
matter-of-fact manner in which they were slowly
wending their way towards it. Some were already
seated in its shade. Others were just entering into
it, whilst a long, straggling tail, spread out for
some 100 yards across the maidan, all gradually
on their way to escape the rays of the sun, already

The midday siesta—Barasingha.

getting hot (though not yet 9 a.m.) in this month
.of April in the Central Provinces.

It was interesting to watch the manner in which
this herd loitered their way along, stopping to crop
here and there some succulent tuft of grass, or the
young, playful stags to have a four de force against
each other, to try their strength and to see how the
horns—those adornments of which they were
secretly so proud—were coming on in view of
future encounters for the possession of the gentle
but wideawake does. But my attention was
chiefly taken up, firstly, with a magnificent stag

39

Jungle By-Ways in India
who had evidently been one of the first to feel the
heat and to seek the grateful siesta. He lay
squatting down with his head almost, if not quite,
resting with the muzzle on the ground, probably to
ease the weight of those heavy horns, and he
appeared to be dozing somnolently. As I watched
him he suddenly raised it to scratch, with the
tip of the right antler, an irritating spot in his
body. He then returned to his former position.

a
I
{
x
yt

Tus
COTS oo
P.

~

Young Barasingha stags sparring.

Hard by was a young restless stag, and he it was
who is the cause of these lines. For he was
restlessly rubbing first his antlers and then the
crown of his head against a young sal sapling,
which from its appearance had had to brave other
assaults of this nature in days gone by; for it
was almost barkless and nearly dead, save for a
few green leaves hanging limply to the twig or two
left. Another stag, also a young one of 2-3 years,
slowly drew near the first and endeavoured to
start the same game, and this led to a butting
exhibition, which in its way was rather fine, as
both the youngsters seemed to very rapidly lose
4o

Antlers

their tempers, and what was started in play
appeared to become a serious business. The spar-
ring was carried on with the young sapling between
them, and what was left of the bark was soon torn
away inshreds. I saw the old stag look round once
as much as to say, ‘ What on earth are you young-
sters at, making yourselves hot and uncomfortable
for nothing! Why don’t you sit down peacefully
in the shade and rest ?’ Advice the young never
wish to receive nor understand when it is given
them.

I left the youngsters at it, for I had several miles
to go, and as the old stag said it was getting hot,
and there were points in favour of his idea when
one looked at his grateful shade.

THE SILENT FOREST POOL

A barasingha stag is a beautiful beast, and at
no time I think have I seen him to more advantage
than when one evening in a jungle stroll in the
hot weather I came upon a wonderfully peaceful
and sylvan scene.

We had been scrunching and crackling over
the dead sal leaves and dry brittle twigs of the sal
forest, which in April gives out as much sound
as if an army of elephants were on the move
instead of a couple of pigmy men, and makes
the heart droop in utter despair of getting near
anything living, much less a decent antlered but
wily stag.

4t

Jungle By-Ways in India

Our route led us over a low rocky ridge, from
whence we had dropped down through the forest
and emerged on to one of the beautiful grassy dells
or little tongue-like valleys which run up between
the hills. Moving down this we rounded a jutting-
out fringe of sal forest, and came suddenly upon a
lovely little tarn. A very jewel was this little pool,
the surface placid and unruffled reposing in a
setting of emerald-green and yellow grass with a
backing of the glorious vivid green sal forest,
the trees as straight as masts and densely set
together.

But that which at once riveted the sportsman’s
gaze and added a charm all its own to this lovely
sylvan scene, was a magnificent fourteen-pointer
barasingha stag quietly seated at the edge of the
tarn. We stood silently in our tracks and watched
him. Here, one thought, he had passed the day
sheltered from the blazing sun, peacefully dozing
through the long hot hours by the side of the
beautifully cool and limpid waters of the little
pool—now and then perhaps waking up to lazily
crop a mouthful or two of the short, sweet succu-
lent grass, or again to gaze into the dark depths of
the still surface of the water.

He was engaged in this occupation when we
suddenly appeared on the scene, and it was some
seconds before that instinct which never sleeps in
the jungle denizens warned him that foes were near.

His head swung round to us, one searching

42

Antlers

startled glance of inquiry and fear, and he sprang
to his feet and stood rigid—a glorious sight, per-
haps one of the most glorious nature has to show,
a full-grown, perfectly developed and beautifully

A 14-pointer Barasingha stag seated at the edge of the tarn.

proportioned fourteen-pointer stag, with head,
body, and limbs tense with the alertness preced-
ing the swift turn and bound with which the
animal commences his retreat.
The barasingha before me was an unusually fine
stag ; but he was to live to visit the peaceful little
43

Jungle By-Ways in India

tarn once again, let us hope many times again, and
to dream there through many long, hot quiet hours
of the Happy Hunting Grounds of the future, for
barasingha were ‘closed’ to shooting in that
locality for the rest of the season.

Magnificent as he was, I could not regret the
loss of such a trophy, for I derived more pleasure
and a more lasting impression from our meeting
in such a manner than I should now from the pos-
session of those fine antlers as a result of an easy
shot.

CHITUL OR SPOTTED DEER

Most people will be inclined to agree that a
chitul or spotted deer stag in his natural sur-
roundings is a beautiful object, and beautiful in
quite a different manner to that of a barasingha or
sambhar or the red deer. He has none of the rugged
almost fierce beauty which is an attribute of the
latter two deer.

The other day I wounded a stag in a beat, and
as soon as the drive had ended I followed the deer
into the long grass and tree forest behind me.
Blood was plentiful, for the poor beast was hard
hit, and at the end of half a mile’s easy tracking
through open tree forest with but a scant under-
growth beneath I came upon my quarry. He was
standing beneath a small leafless tree, his head,
adorned with a pair of beautifully symmetrical
horns, turned towards me, and the sun glinting

44

Antlers

upon the pale but bright yellow chestnut coat with
its horizontal rows of white spots, and the snow-
white of the under part of the neck and belly.

A shot ," the heart finished him, and as I

ae oP NX.

i l EM AF ig &

ra
ee

we AMES IL SoD ceria

=

yo

Any DA 9\ MWS FFE
eth’ seas

Chitul stags and doe.

stood by and watched the beautiful eye glazing
I felt I would have given a good deal to have
been able to bring him to life, and put him back
into his glorious jungles again.

It was the end of December in Northern India,
and yet the upper parts of the horns of this stag
still had a sheathing of velvet on them.

45

Jungle By-Ways in India

The spotted deer, in Northern India at any rate,
and the same is, I think, the case in the Central
Provinces, sheds its horns and acquires fresh ones
much later in the season than is the case with
either barasingha or sambhar. The chitul in the
Tarai are not really shootable till about March,
although it will of course be possible to come
across a clean head before this date. I have seen
numberless heads all through December, January,
and February, and the majority have almost in-
variably been in velvet.

In framing rules for close seasons, such natural
history factors require to be well known and borne
in mind.

The horns are shed during the rains and ensuing
cold weather, but on this’ subject it is probable
that we have much to learn. I was out recently in
the middle of October having a first beat for jungle-
fowl, when a stag chitul was put up. It broke back
through the beaters, and one of them aimed a
stick atit. The stick struck the right antler, which
dropped off at the blow. An examination showed
that it was evidently just ready to be shed.

A chitul stag carries a head of three points
similar to a sambhar, but the antler is not nearly so
massive. » There is the main antler with a branch
near the top, the outer tine being always the
longer, and the frontal tine.

The record head for this deer is 39} inches round

the curve, His Excellency Lord Minto nearly
46

el.

fa)
po!
i a Pore «hind

Chitul tracks,

Jungle By-Ways in India
approached this with a 393 inch, shot at Mohand
in the Siwaliks, in April, 1909.

Thirty-six inch is considered a good head. A
chitul stag in good condition runs from 200 lbs. to
250 lbs. in weight, being 32 inches at the shoulder.

The rutting season for spotted deer is very
irregular, fawns being born throughout the year.
The horns are consequently shed very irregularly,
mostly perhaps between October and March. The
period of gestation is eight months.

The tracks of the chitul are narrower and more
pointed in front, and also smaller than those of the
barasingha.

I have noted, so far as my experience goes, that
the chitul stag appears to be more wary than the
barasingha. Or I may better express my own
observations by saying that the former stag ap-
pears to almost invariably leave the forest last when
in company of a herd of does and smaller stags.

Often have I waited in vain for a shot at the big
stag of a herd. I remember on one occasion I
watched a herd for several evenings in succession,
in the hopes of securing a good stag I had marked
down in it. The herd was curious in one way.
There was a white or albino hind in it. I have
often regretted since that I did not shoot this
white doe instead of spending my energies on the
stag. I do not fancy that albino does are un-
common amongst chitul, but it happens to be the
only case I have seen myself.

45

(VGH TALIHS HONI-ZE v (VUH VHONISVUVA AAVUL V

(i)
\
{ i)

Ay &

Antlers

To return to the stag. I stalked up to my cus-
tomary position, and arrived just as the first does
were issuing from the edge of the sal forest. This
first lot of hinds came out more or less together, and
then gradually separated as they commenced to
graze over the grassy plain. Nearer and nearer to
my position came the outposts and vedettes, and
I sat as silent and still as death, keeping one eye
on them and the other on the point in the forest
from which I expected the stag to emerge.

It is little short of astonishing how close chitul
does will come to one if one makes no movement.
One morning I noticed a few chitul cross, some
distance ahead of me, a kutcha road running
through the forest. I ran lightly up the road and
arrived almost up to the point where the does
had crossed. At the side of the road, to my right,
was a large stone roughly marking the mile. I
sat down on this, laid my rifle across my knees, and
waited. I heard rustling in the scrub jungle,
which was fairly thick, in front of me and also
across the road. Soon a doe and a youngster
came out on to the road, looked round—they were
within fifteen yards of me—and slowly crossed
into the jungle. Two others followed, and then
came the stag. To my disappointment he was a
small one. I sat on, and presently the rustling in
front came nearer, and three does and a youngster
pushed their way slowly through the bushes, and
stood and looked at me within five yards. I kept

E 49

Jungle By-Ways in India

my eyes low so that they could not look into
them. Another rustle, and there was the stag.
He looked up casually, dropped his head, and then
suddenly looked up again. I had not moved, but

A herd of Chitul on the edge of the forest.

something aroused his suspicions. He stared
fixedly for some seconds, gave one short, snappy
yelp, and the party were gone.

On the present occasion these does were
beginning to bother me. The big stag had not
appeared, and yet already some of the vedettes
were quite close to me, and one or two had
got into some long grass on my right, prevent-

5° F

Antlers

ing me from any longer following their move-

ments.
‘At last!’ I muttered, as a clatter of dead leaves

4

ON NN OD
Out steps the stag.

made itself heard in the forest. Out steps the
stag with head carried royally as he takes a few
short, quick, stilted steps into the open and looks
round.
What a picture he makes !
51

Jungle By-Ways in India

My hopes of at last bagging him run high.
Instead, however, of advancing farther, down
goes his head, and he commences to crop the
sweet grass in eager mouthfuls.

Nearer came the pernicious does, and one
away to the right has now left the grass and is
approaching me on flank. The stag throws
up his head and again advances with a long,
curiously undulating, proud stride. Easy it is
to see that he knows himself to be the undisputed
lord there. I carefully draw a sight on him. Too
far yet! I cautiously turn my head. That
confounded doe is within twenty paces of me, and
others are following in her tracks. In front I can see
seven does of various sizes all within 30 to 40 yards.

I glance away to the west, and my heart sinks,
for the upper rim of the sun is just dropping behind
the tree-tops, and I know that I have but little
time left. Something must be done, and that
quickly. The stag is gradually feeding towards me,
and I estimate his distance at about go yards, per-
haps less, as the light is already becoming doubtful.

Carefully assuming a crouching position, I
suddenly stand erect, without making a sound,
and with my rifle levelled on the stag. The does
to the right take one look and make for the grass.
The heads of those in front come up, the ears
flick forward, and they stand and stare at me,
move a few paces back, and stare again. I have
the darkening forest behind me, and calculated

52

Antlers

that I should probably be difficult to distinguish. I
keep my eye on the stag. At the first movement of
the does, up goes his head, and he stands watchful.

He evidently cannot distinguish me, and does
not understand the vagaries and antics of his
harem. He advances a few strides, halts, and
then advances again. ‘He cannot now be more
than fifty paces away,’ I think, but he is standing
fronting me, tearing at the turf with his forefoot
and evidently in a royal rage. The light is flicker-
ing and vile, but there is nothing for it, and I
aim at his chest. The stag sinks in his tracks,
raises himself half up as the frightened herd
dash past him for the safe precincts of the
forest, and then sinks to rise no more. As I rush
forward towards the stag with my eye on the
retreating herd, the long white scuts of the doe
chitul are what chiefly attract one as they
disappear into the grass fringing the forest.
Their scuts are held stiff in the air over the
rump, and look more like giant white rabbit scuts
than anything else. They are slightly curved
over the back, but jerk backwards and forwards

with each jump.
rail
ala hash
y ok hy We it il

a Ne

No pd

CHAPTER IV

Sambhar—Habits—Does—Appearance—Tracks of sambhar—Size of
horns—Mother and youngster—The mother’s alarm—The young-
ster’s behaviour—The youngster takes a toss—The sambhar stag—
Wariness of—How to find the stag—Disappearance of large stags
from plains’ forest—Poaching—Tracking the old stags in the hills
—Difficult country—The big stag—An unexpected vencontre—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.

SAMBHAR

HE sambhar is a much heavier and
clumsier animal than the barasingha,

and the noise of a stampeding herd is

* like unto that of a troop of heavy
cavalry charging. Their movements are heavy,
and do not possess the beauty and grace peculiar
to the smaller deer and many of the antelope,
though they are by no means so ungainly and

54 ‘

Antlers

awkward as the nilgai or blue bull, probably the
clumsiest of all antelopes. For their size it is
wonderful how quietly a number of sambhar can
move through the forest or long grass without
making a sound, or but little sound.

WG
Ae {)
hes
Wf N\NG

An old doe will stand on the edge of the forest.

When not startled, the deer’s movements are
slow, and they graze in Indian file along the animal
path to which they keep ; or at most stray but a
few feet from it to browse, returning to it again.

If you watch a herd of does on the feed, you
will find that they progress at a very slow rate
indeed when grazing in this manner. Watch
them come out of the forest into the grass. An

55

Jungle By-Ways in India

old doe will probably lead the way, and stand
on the edge of the forest for several minutes,
searching intently every yard of the open grass
area in front of her to the distant horizon before
she moves out into it. Her ears flick backwards
and forwards as she listens to catch the faintest
inimical sound, and she noses and snuffs the air for
foreign alarming scents.

At length she is apparently satisfied, and moves
forward and commences to crop the grass. Now
the rest of the herd, comprised of does of all sizes
who have been halting just within the leafy shade
of the trees, follow in her tracks, and more or less
keep to them at first. Watch them!

The ears are ever on the move flickering back-
wards and forwards, and their longish scuts are
propelled incessantly from side to side. They
move along holding the head low. Only when
alarmed is the head thrown up, the ears flick for-
ward and remain erect and rigid, whilst the neck is
stretched to the utmost length to enable a com-
plete survey of the surrounding neighbourhood to
be made. Sambhar will remain in this position
for minutes at a time if they are really alarmed,
and then with a sharp squeal they turn to the
right-about and are off at their curious lumbering
gallop, crashing through everything as they lollop
along in lumbering bounds, which have but little of
the agility of the barasingha or chitul about them.

The hair is very coarse, and they are dark

56

Antlers
brown in colour, instead of yellow-brown, as is

the barasingha.

toy e

wl~

a

Sambhar tracks.
The tracks are elongate and rather broad, being

longer than the barasingha and not so broad
57

*,

Jungle By-Ways in India

in proportion to the length. They are not so
pointed as those of the chitul and are easily
recognizable.

When at the trot or run, as is the case with the
chitul, the long scut is held erect or curving over
the back slightly, and this method of holding it
may be noticed amongst young sambhar when they

y a fg
: J

The thick scuts of the sambhar does.

are mincing along in the stilted walk they affect.
Usually very young stags, I have noticed, are
particularly addicted to this mode of progression.
The scut is much broader than that of the
chitul, and has a flat broad end to it instead of the
long pointed end of long hairs found in the chitul.
Burke (in the Indian Field Shtkar book) gives as
his record, a head of 504 inches, with a girth of
g# inches from Bhopal. Such heads do not exist
nowadays. The average length may be taken at
58 .

Antlers

30 inches, and anything at 40 inches is good. The
average height at the shoulder of this deer is
54 inches, the length 6 feet 6 inches, and the
weight 500-700 lbs.

MOTHER AND YOUNGSTER

Have you ever noticed what a ‘ high-stepper ’
a doe sambhar is when she is alarmed, but is not
quite sure where the danger comes from or what
it really is? And have you noted the absurd
manner in which a youngster copies its mother ?

I was out on a broad fire-line in the forest one
morning in April. It was light, but the sun had
not yet topped the low forest-crowned hill to my
right. Going up a rise quite silently, we suddenly
came to an abrupt halt as a doe sambhar emerged
from the forest on the far side, and half crossed the
line. She then spotted a slight movement, probably
on our part, but could not clearly make out what it
was. She stopped on the instant and stood like
stone for a minute or so, and then uttered a short,
sharp bark with a note half of fear, half of interro-
gation in it. No result! The lady became an-
noyed and restive, and then commenced that high-
stepping that I have alluded to, the ears being
kept forward and the scut erected in the air. She
raised first one fore-leg and then the other, curved
and bent almost up to her chest in the most ap-
proved fashion of the London high-stepper park
horse. Asa leg was lowered it was set down with

59

Jungle By-Ways in India

force and decision—stamped into the ground, in
fact, after the fashion of her sex when annoyed the
world over! Her movements were just as if she
were hung on wires or stepping on hot coals, save
and only that her feet were always put down with
a stamp.

She moved about for some time in this
manner, not making much progress in any direc-
tion, but shifting her ground at each step,
the while emitting at intervals the short, sharp
bark.

I had thought that she was alone, but not so.
There was a youngster at heel, and he, getting
tired of this performance on the part of his mother
and doubtless thinking it all foolishness to remain
nidden in the jungle any longer, strolled out on to
the line.

He saw nothing, but looking at his mother,
round came his little head, forward: flicked the
ears (which looked much too large for him), up
went his little scut, and he began to go gravely
through the same antics as his mother.

He stepped high in the most approved fashion
and stamped his little hoofs into the ground,
always taking care to have the same fore-leg in the
air as his parent, and, following her example,
emitted now and then curious laughable little
short squeaking barks.

It was a ludicrous and at the same time a very
pretty sight to watch the little fellow with his long

60 *

S Antlers

shaggy coat and coarse, rough-looking appearance,
which all the young sambhar have.

That the little chap had not the faintest notion
where the danger was, or whether there was any,
was evidenced after a short time by his giving up
his antics, unconcernedly looking about in the
opposite direction, carelessly cropping a mouthful
or two of grass, and finally exhibiting all the evi-

ahard
a8
ees

aie
ny
‘
¥
Steal

Sor
ei

SE x
: Ne 4
eS

Mother and youngster.

dences of a thoroughly spoilt and fed-up child who
had had enough of this game and wanted to go on.

Anything more ludicrous I have rarely seen in
my life. That young sambhar behaved towards
its respected parent in exactly the same manner as
would a tired-out and satiated child !

Having watched this little tableau to my satis-
faction I moved slowly forward, and at last the
doe realized that it was really a specimen of that
awful animal man who had managed to get so
close to her neighbourhood.

61

Jungle By-Ways in India

With one short, sharp, affrighted bark she
bounded madly forward a few yards towards the
forest, then changed her mind and doubled on her
tracks so suddenly as to clean bowl over her
youngster, who, following her a little to the left,
was caught amidships. The mother did not wait
then to see to him, but in a couple of bounds
cleared the line and was in the forest. The
youngster picked himself up like any other
youngster in the animal world would do under
similar circumstances. Having but a little way to
fall, he was on his feet again and into the jungle
like a flash with never a squeak or bark.

I will say for the mother that her momentary
panic was momentary only, for she could not have
gone twenty paces into the forest before she re-
membered and pulled up, and waited, most
anxiously we may be sure. Her anxiety lasted
but a few seconds, however, and as the youngster
went by at a wild gallop she was off after him.

THE SAMBHAR STAG

Surely a noble sambhar stag with a massive
44-inch head is one of the finest, or I will say
amongst the finest, sights the Indian jungle has to
show. Although he has none of the airy grace of
the smaller of the deer tribe in India, his great size
and majestic carriage give him a lordly and noble
air, and combine to make him a real king amongst
our deer and antelope.

62 .

- 497 ae

Se Sas aaa
ly ee rage “aie Pad,
sat Blogs re 18

sAL FOREST AND OPEN GRASS a14/D4N AREAS IN THE CENTRAL
PROVINCES

HEAVY SAMBHAR AND CHITUL HEADS SHOT IN THE CENTRAL
PROVINCES. A FINE BLOCK OF SAL FOREST IS SEEN IN THE
BACKGROUND

Antlers

At the same time he is one of the wariest of the
jungle denizens. When with his harem he expects
the does to protect him, and will be found in the
rear when the herd is on the march. It is only at
night or at dawn or early dusk that he will be found
in the open, either in the beautiful grassy dells and
savannahs which are to be found in the sal forest
country, or in the fields devouring the crops of the
wretched jungle cultivator, the inhabitant of the
forest village ; for he is not above taking toll of
young succulent crops, though he is at his very
wariest when doing so.

Well aware are the jungle men of his habits and
peculiarities. ‘It is of no use, sahib,’ they will
tell you. ‘You must go out and take up your
position long before daybreak on one of the likely
animal runs by which he will return at earliest
dawn to the forest, if you want to get a shot ata
good stag. And then beware, oh, beware of the
does! For if they so much as get the slightest sus-
picion of your presence, good-bye to all chance of
seeing the stag. He will be off like the wind.’

Rarely will a stag worth a second glance at be
caught napping out in the open once the sun has
risen over the hill or tree-tops.

There can be little doubt, I think, with the
enormously increased shooting to which the
forests of the country are becoming more and
more subject, that the sambhar, or the old, wily,
large sambhar with the shootable heads, are

63

Jungle By-Ways in India
leaving the plains’ forests, and taking more and
more to the hilly country, and are less seldom

than formerly to be found in the open or even
in fairly thick forest which is situated near a

Sambhar stag returning to the forest in the early morning.

sporting centre or near villages containing ‘ sport-
ing’ (save the mark !) shikaris.

Fire protection in the large Reserved forests
of the plains has also perhaps something to do
with this. There is no doubt that successfully
fire-protected forests do not afford the same

64 .

\

“ Antlers

amount of fresh succulent grass annually as
exists on burnt over areas. There is probably
a certain amount of truth in the lines put into
the sambhar’s mouth in the ‘Autobiography of
a Sambhar Stag’ (Leaves from an Indian Jungle).

“Sahib! you are steadily driving us from our
home on these hills. Why is the grass never
fired now, and why left to die down season after
season till it cumbers the earth with such a
mildewed and powdery carpeting as none but the
rankest herbage may penetrate when the rain
comes down ? The bison are going, and we follow,
and at no distant time these hills will stand yet
more desolate, deprived of all that once gladdened
their solitude.”

Without the most rigid protection, as exemplified
by the formation of Game Sanctuaries and the
limiting of the number of head shot annually in
definite areas, there can be little doubt that all
heavy game shooting worthy of the name will at
no distant date be a thing of the past in India.

Nowadays, if the sportsman wishes to obtain a
good sambhar head, it is to the hilly country to
which he must turn his eyes, and it is to his own
two legs that he must trust to take him up to the
stag. And I do not think ‘that most true shikaris
will be sorry that this is so. A grand old stag is
far too fine a quarry to end his life ignominiously
from a shot from a howdah whose occupant has
done nothing personally to get up to the fine old

F 65

Jungle By-Ways in India
beast, or to drop to the rifle of a would-be shikari
sitting over a salt lick!

Sterndale in the old days endeavoured to defend
this latter practice by some specious arguments,
but it is a pastime which even the Government
of India have realized smacks too much of the
methods of our Aryan Brother to fall within the
term of sport, and have prohibited it.

I have often thought, too, that it is a pity
that a fine stag should end his days at the end ofa
drive through the forest when, flying mad with
terror from a pandemonium behind him, he bites
the dust in front of a sportsman carefully en-
sconced upon his run.

Is there very much difference between the
methods of such a sportsman and those of a wild
dog ?

I have alluded to the wariness of the old stags.
I have often watched a stag on his way from the
forest to water or to a salt lick or out into the open
to graze.

He will approach the edge of the forest with
the greatest circumspection and caution, and then
wait for minutes together searching each square
inch of country in front to make sure that there
are no enemies in it, and snuff the air with equal
closeness and care. He may then move forward a
few steps and then commence the same perform-
ance over again.

Wonderful is the patience and extreme wariness
66 .

Antlers

of an old stag. He resembles the bison in this
respect, and as years pass and his head becomes
heavier and so much the more worth having, so
does his wariness increase.

Have you ever stalked sambhar in the hilly

Se

Position of the fens peel. +

Sambhar tracks.

ranges of India—over the highland plateaux of
Central India or in the Siwaliks and foot hills
of the great Himalayan Chain, or again up in the
Ootacamund Hills or other ranges in far Madras and
Bombay ? Itisa grand sport, and requires that he
who undertakes it should be in hard condition,
with a good wind and steady hand and eye.

It is almost incredible, when one considers the
67

Jungle By-Ways in India

great size and weight and heavy build of the
sambhar (a full-grown stag in good condition runs
from 500 to 700 lbs.), to see for oneself the pre-
cipitous country he can get over. Down rocky
slopes, little short of precipices, his trail will lead
you, and up khuds that one would think were
negotiable to the goat alone, and along knife
edges on the saddles where a false step would
drop one down uncomfortably steep slopes. In
such country, clothed sparsely with stunted tree-
growth or scattered bamboo clumps and a thick,
coarse, usually matted grass, the sambhar, and
especially the old sambhar stag, is in his element,
and such are the places where he must be sought
for nowadays.

I can recommend no better morning’s outing
for a man in good fettle than a climb for a stag
in the cold weather in the Siwaliks or foot hills
of the Himalaya. Your shikari, if he is worth his
salt, will insist on your reaching, before dawn, a
ridge or saddle from which you can get a view of
several little valleys and dells, and this usually
means getting off between 3 and 4 a.m. on a bitter
morning with a wind blowing down from the
snows fit to cut you in two. Many such pleasant
reminiscences have I to look back to.

I remember one morning most vividly. I had
determined on one of several unsuccessful treks
after a big stag which was known to inhabit a

certain area in the upper hills. Starting at 3 a.m.
68 :

Antlers

with a half-light from a segment of a moon, we
spent two hours in stumbling up the stony bed
of a nullah, which was eventually replaced by a
sambhar-run which led up to a knife-edge saddle
some two miles distant. The moon proved of
little use as soon as we entered the lower part
of the forest, and the wind was so piercing that
one could scarcely feel one’s numbed fingers
as one endeavoured to make use of them to aid
one on that upward climb. The shikari with the
rifle led on without a falter. The tribe seem
to be possessed of the sight of the night denizens
of the jungle, for they certainly see as well.
We had climbed half up the slope when a sudden,
short, frightened bark or bell almost in the
shikari’s face startled us. We had run into a
sambhar coming down the path from the opposite
direction, and the rapid beat of its hoofs proclaimed
its equal fright at the encounter, though in the
tenebrian darkness we could distinguish nothing.
I heard the shikari grumbling to himself over the
mischance, and mischance it proved to be as we
afterwards found, for a subsequent examination
of the tracks proved the beast to be the very one
we were after. Their size was too well known
in that part of the hills to leave any room for
doubt. At the time I did not dream of its being the
old stag. I was only annoyed at the thought that
the beast might have startled the big one if he
were in the neighbourhood. On reaching the
69

Jungle By-Ways in India
knife-ridge it wanted still three-quarters of an hour
to dawn, and we sat down. My word! It was
bitter! One had got warm going up, but even
with a thick sweater the wind from the snows
pierced one to the bone. Very silent is it up here
in the hour before the dawn in the winter-time.
You get none of the familiar sounds which greet
and welcome the approach of the sun god in the
hot weather. Every thing and every one is roost-
ing, and the sun has to rise and shed its warmth
around before the feathered songster starts off
to seek the early worm.

As one strained one’s eyes round, at last
a faint paleing of the opaque darkness made
itself felt rather than seen, and soon, very soon
in this Eastern land, the flanks of the opposite
hills began to jump out of the obscurity, and
gradually the shroud rolls off the bottoms of the
little cup-shaped valleys.

This is the long-anticipated moment. Shall
we be in luck to-day ? Men whose fortune is good
have seen one or more stags grazing within easy
range to repay them for their rough climb and
shortened night’s rest. Shall we? The glasses
come out, and every inch of the forest and grassy
slopes are searched most eagerly, but all in vain.
Not even a doe is visible. There is nothing for it
but to tramp on. The shikari leads the way
towards another water-shed, and we have our
work cut out for us in following the sambhar

7O

Antlers

path, the only semblance of a path in these
regions. Up hill and down dale we toil, but
usually on the knife-edge, for it is necessary to
keep an eye on the country on both sides. That
sambhar are plentiful in the locality is evidenced
by the numbers of young sal and pine saplings
ruthlessly girdled or barked by these animals
whilst rubbing the velvet off their horns or from
pure destructiveness.

We suddenly round a corner, and there, stand-
ing in the path, is a doe sambhar. At first she
does not appear to notice us, and we stand like
rocks, for it is too late to drop in our tracks.
Soon, however, her gaze is concentrated in our
direction, her ears flick forward, and again comes
that startled, warning bark, and she is off in
a wild, mad plunge down the steep khud, soon
disappearing into a patch of forest.

This means another trek, for there is still hope
up here where the stags are so little disturbed
that they may be found feeding on the open grassy
sides of the little sheltered valleys until two to
three hours after the sun has risen.

We change our direction, however, and strike
down the khud on the opposite side of the saddle
to that taken by the doe, and this means a toil-
some climb up the opposite hill-side.

Towards the bottom of the little valley the
slopes of the hills are covered with a fairly dense
piece of forest with a stream tinkling down its

71

Jungle By-Ways in India

centre, and here the sambhar lie up and dream
lazily through the day.
‘As we approached the top of the opposite saddle
we used the greatest circumspection, and wormed
our way up on our stomachs for the last few yards.
One glance over was sufficient. A stag was
feeding within 30 yards of the top, the usual knife-

Fore

Sambhar tracks.

edge, and a first glance showed him to be a big
beast. His horns also looked thick.

There is no time to lose on such occasions, and
cocking the rifle, I pushed the muzzle over the
edge and drew a sight on him. I recharged the
Lee-Metford almost as I heard the bullet go home,
and fired again. The sambhar dropped and dis-
appeared down the khud. I jumped up and the

72 2

Antlers

shikari rose at the same moment. Being lower
down than I was, he had not seen the animal drop
or heard anything, and was of opinion that I
had missed. We most of us know how ready these
men are to consider the sahib must have done so if
the animal is not dropped in its tracks. No doubt
they see a good deal of missing in their time, and
also have to undertake weary tramps after animals
thought to be wounded but which are never
regained. In this instance the khud face down
which we looked was not only very sheer and
rocky but went down a long way too, and abso-
lutely nothing was visible. I was too certain
that the beast was dead, however, to allow any
hesitation, and we climbed down, the shikari
searching the ground and grumbling, and I
making straight down to where I believed the
beast had rolled. It was a difficult drop, as in
places the hill-side was simply a bare sheet of rock.
We had got down two-thirds of the slope, finding:
a rough, rocky watercourse to help us, and it was
in a little dry rock pool that we came upon the
sambhar, which had rolled and bumped down
some 250 feet or more.

The first glance at his head resulted in dis-
appointment. It was quite small, though thick.
A second glance, however, showed that there were
no upper tines, only the big beam and the brow
tine being present on each side, the one horn being
much shorter than the other.

73

Jungle By-Ways in India

I depict this head here, as the shikari and other
natives who saw it maintained that there are two
varieties of sambhar, and that animals with heads
like this form a distinct variety.

Three months later I was down in Mandla in the
Central Provinces, and a shikari picked up the
shed horn shown in the accompanying plate. It
is much larger than my head, but also has no
upper tine. The local shikari in that locality
also maintained that it was a different variety.

I should be inclined to favour the supposition
that the sambhar were old beasts ‘ going back,’
i.e. that the horns as the animal grows old
diminish in size and lose their upper tines. As
against this theory, however, is the fact that
sambhar with this kind of horn are rarely met
with.

Curiosities and monstrosities are of course met
with in sambhar heads as in other deer and
antelope. I have asketch of a curious head shot
by Captain Willis, of the 29th Lancers. This latter
may, however, be the result of a cross between
a sambhar and barasingha, as it exhibits many of
the characteristics of both.

For an explanation of the horn with the upper
tine wanting, we seem to need more information
as to the plentifulness of animals bearing such
heads. It is an interesting point for shikaris.

HORNS OF THE HOG DEER OR PARA

A CURIOUS SAMBHAR HEAD— A HEAVY SAMBHAR HORN—
THE UPPER TINE MISSING THE UPPER TINE MISSING

=)

= S i
N pot 9
xt .
IGA a WN

, and the horns are

SSS Sag ome’
gga

CHAPTER V

The hog deer--Appearance and horns—Habits—How to shoot—

Appearance—Curious horns—Tracks— Habits—Easy to stalk and
kill—Young ones—Indian mouse deer—A tiny deer—Habits—Has

ing—Tracks— Barking deer or kakar—An annoying little animal—
no trophy.

Shooting off the elephant in grass jungle—Difficult shots—Stalk-

THE HOG DEER

is a clumsy little animal

resembling in many respects a sambhar
The height at the shoulder of this

or para, as he is termed in the United

OR his size the hog deer (Cervus porcinus)
Provinces,

little deer is about 24 inches

en miniature.

75

Jungle By-Ways in India

much shorter and of narrower beam than those
of the sambhar, the brow antler meeting the
beam at an acute angle. The horns measure only
some I5 inches or so. The skin has more or less
distinctly marked spots in the summer, and in
some respects the animal resembles a small
spotted deer; in others, as his name implies, a
pig.

The hog deer is widely distributed in the
Indo-Gangetic plain, from Sind and the Punjab to
Assam. It is common in the Terai grass jungles,
but never goes up into the hills. It is doubtful
whether it is ever found in the Central Highlands
of India or southwards in North Madras.

This little deer is not gregarious, being found
either solitary or in twos or threes. The horns
are dropped about the beginning of May usually,
although the period evidently varies according
to the season. The period of gestation is about
eight months.

Para are usually shot either from an elephant
by beating through long grass, or by stalking
them in open grass areas where they may be found
feeding in the early morning and late afternoon
and evening. Both methods afford excellent sport.

Have you ever tried beating up hog deer on an
elephant in tall grass jungle ? It is great fun, and
requires a quick eye. Below one in the grass are
little tunnels which form the runs of the animals

living in this part of the world.
76

Antlers

These tunnels are far too small for the elephant
to make use of, and he simply forges straight
ahead beating out a broad furrow in the dense
grass. Suddenly a dark, yellowish, brownish
shape emerges from the grass and goes skipping
away in front or to the right or left rear.

It is a parva, and before one has had time to
focus the sight upon it, it has dropped into one
of the tunnel runs and disappeared.

The whole thing is over in less than half a
minute, and one realizes that one has seen one’s
first para, and that para-shooting from an ele-
phant’s back in grass may not be quite so easy as
we first supposed.

One often sees it stated that hog deer cannot be
stalked. I have not found this to be so. The
tracks as shown here are easily decipherable from
the sambhar, chitul and barasingha by their
smaller size, and are easily distinguishable from
those of the kakar. I have found that on the
grassy plains one finds interspersed with the sal
forests in the Terai it is quite possible to stalk
these little animals in the early morning and even-
ing. At such times they are to be found out in the
open close to the edges of the forest in the grass
areas, and by carefully choosing the direction
of approach and making use of all available cover,
one can often advance to within 30 or 40 yards
and secure an easy shot.

I remember one such morning in May. I was

77

Jungle By-Ways in India
on a pad-elephant and spotted a couple of stag
feeding in the open about 15 yards from the edge

li gs
wh) ai

ee

w

Fore

oN
\
Y
Dae- +
fing 2 ' \ Hind
ew
=

Tracks of the para or hog deer.

of a dense patch of grass. Dropping off the pad
I advanced across the open with the low, level
78

Antlers

rays of the rising sun directly on my back. I
actually walked erect across the short grass of the
open plain to within about 80 yards of the deer,
and then dropping flat down I wormed my way
on my stomach to within about 30 yards and
secured the better of the two heads by an easy
shot from the °303.

A kakar or barking deer.

THE BARKING DEER OR KAKAR

A funny little beggar is the barking deer, munt-
jac, or kakar (Cervulus muntjac), known as the
ribbed-faced deer in the Central Provinces, and,
of all names, the jungle sheep in Madras. When
you put him up or startle him in the jungle he
rushes off for a hundred yards or so into the
nearest thick piece of scrub, and then turns round
and yaps at you for all the world like a spoilt

poodle.
79

Jungle By-Ways in India

He is at times a most frightfully annoying little
beggar in this way, for he wakes up the whole
jungle by this irritating bark of his, and puts every-
thing on the qui vive.

The kakar is a small reddish chestnut-coloured
deer, low in the fore-quarters and standing only
some 23 inches at the shoulder and 3 feet in
length, and is thus, with one exception, the
smallest of the deer tribe in India. The males
weigh 4o lbs. only. Owing to his small size he
moves very quietly through the jungle, and one
often meets him almost face to face without having
heard a sound of his approach.

This little deer has the widest range of any
throughout the country, being common through-
out India and Burma and ranging up into the
Himalaya to an elevation of some 7000 feet.

He affords but poor sport, and with the exercise
of a little trouble and patience can be easily stalked
and killed. He is probably most often shot for
food, as his venison is by no means bad and often
affords a very welcome variety to the ordinary
camp fare.

The barking deer’s most striking peculiarity is
situated in his horns. Above the eye a curious,
erect, bony excrescence, or pedicel, covered with
hair and some 3 or 4 inches in length, stands up
and on this is situated the horn proper, which is
forked and may be another 4-5 inches long. The

record length is some g inches only, furry portion
80 ‘

Antlers

and horn together, and so this little deer does
not yield much of a trophy. These horns drop

Me as

4 4 4 aa

Hind

Tracks of kakar or barking deer.

off in May, and the new horns are perfect in
August.
The mouth of the kakar is worth an inspection.
G 81

Jungle By-Ways in India
Two little sharp tusks, the canine-teeth, curve
downwards from the upper jaw, and when at bay
it can inflict sharp wounds with these.

The little barking deer is a solitary animal, being
usually found alone, though occasionally a pair
will be found together. It is perhaps most com-
monly seen in beats, where it will be found to ap-
proach the edge of the forest in the quietest and
wariest manner, not a sound betraying its presence.
Then when pressed it will jump across the ride in
a flash, giving only the snappiest of shots. Men
often shoot them with slugs, but I personally
think it more sporting to use the rifle.

The tracks are fairly easily distinguishable from
those of the hog deer, as may be seen from the
accompanying sketch.

The young ones are spotted, and are quite help-
less for several days after birth. I found one about
the middle of April, in the Terai, in a tiny form in
tall grass jungle, and the little beggar though a
couple of days or so old could scarcely stand.

We had put up the mother, who took up a
position within 50 yards and barked away at us
furiously.

One or two young ones are said to be born at a
birth, the period of gestation being six months.

o2

BOAR’S HEAD

HORNS OF THE BARKING
DEER OR MUNTJAC

THE BARKING DEER, KAKAR OR MUNTJAC

Antlers

THE INDIAN MOUSE DEER

The little mouse deer, or chevrotain (Tvagulus
minimus), is worthy of mention here, both on
account of its tiny size, it being the smallest of all
Indian deer, and also owing to the fact that it is
not uncommonly met with in the Central Provinces
and in the forests stretching away from these down
through Chota Nagpur, Orissa into Southern
India, where it is found up to 2000 feet, and west-
ward along the Western Ghats to north of
Bombay.

It is a tiny brown deer, minutely speckled with
yellow ; the sides spotted with white or buff, the
lower parts being white. There are three white
stripes on the throat.

The average height of the mouse deer is Io
inches only at the shoulder, and the weight 5 to
6 Ibs. only.

One often puts up this dainty little deer in grass
amongst rocks or trappy, scrub-covered country,
and it can be easily bowled over with a charge of
No. 6.

According to the Authorities it breeds at the
end of the rains—September, October. It is very
easily tamed.

As the animal has no horns and thus does not
form a trophy, it is rarely shot, save perhaps for
the pot. One is usually, however, after more

83

Jungle By-Ways in India

important game when it is met with, and so
withholds one’s fire and lets the graceful little
animal pass by in safety.

Aen»
yy ee, ‘
rt } ¢ | a os
| of (
Ge ‘. ohy® “at ce
Lf ! z 5 4
( 5 an wef
win is fe Furs 3
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awe GUL - Soop oF
— = AM,
ee ae eh eats
si Seg

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we htemee

a el ok .
Mid, Diy fas a 1 i
a
ie ree ee
I oi aig me & z
cee (gre . » naptbcsesthibQy

Fane pias x)
sl fa

“7 Bay? Me, ji EG
em, —

7,

=
=, tft
me LA ee

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 monkey’s
panchayit.

SOME DIFFICULTIES OF STALKING
UCH could be written on the sub-
ject of that most fascinating of all
methods of shooting big game in
India—stalking them on foot. For
we have such a variety of game in the country,

and to stalk with any chance of securing a decent
85

Jungle By-Ways in India

amount of success it is essential that the habits
of the game, whether it be animal, reptile, or
bird you wish to stalk, should be known to you.

One often overhears men saying in the mess or
club—one has unconsciously often said it oneself :
‘Oh, So-and-so has the most wonderful luck
whenever he goes out. It’s shooting made easy
with him.’

I am not prepared to say that some men are not
more lucky than others. It makes for the great
fascination which shikar has for so many of us
that the element of luck does enter largely into
the matter. But when I hear of a man’s persistent
luck I always like to try and ascertain as much as
he will divulge about his methods, because I have
invariably found that he with the so-called
‘persistent luck’ is a man whose knowledge of
the ways of the beasts he pursues is generally
very considerable.

It is not always, however, even when armed with
a good knowledge of the habits of one’s quarry
that success will be attained. You will often find
that in addition to knowing the habits of the game
you are after, you must know those of a variety of
the smaller mammals and birds who do not come
within the Scope of what we call ‘ game’ nor afford
trophies.

I was carefully stalking a black buck one hot-
weather morning, and had every hopes of a
successful and comparatively easy stalk; for as

86

Antlers

soon as I saw the animals—there were a few does
and a shootable buck—I noticed that between
them and myself, and only about 50 yards from
them, there was a deepish nullah.

Retracing my steps I got into the nullah at
some distance above the antelope, and then com-
menced a careful progression down it.

We had had a couple of days’ heavy rain, and
the nullah, usually dry at this season, contained
a considerable amount of water which gave me
some trouble. Things went well, however, and
on my journey I took several peeps over the
edge to see how I was getting on. At one of them
I spotted a fox approaching the nullah diagonally
in such a manner as to render it evident that it
would hit it off just above me. I at first thought
of lying low, or of turning back on my tracks for a
bit. Reconsidering matters, however, I thought it
possible that the animal, on seeing me, would slink
off rapidly down the nullah and disappear.
A jackal might. A fox, I think, usually would not.

I therefore continued my course for a few yards,
and then again looked over the nullah edge right,
as luck would have it, into the face of the fox, he
being scarcely 15 yards away.

There was a fringe of grass on the nullah bank
and I do not think that fox actually saw me, but he
smelt danger, and to my disgust started barking—
short, sharp, snappy barks, just like those of a
little pet lap-dog and as annoying. I had little

87

Jungle By-Ways in India
doubt that it would put the black buck on the
alert. There was nothing for it but to hurry on
down the nullah, and this I at once started to do,
wading quietly through a deep pool which I now
had no time to go round.

Another peep over the edge, first backwards at
the fox who was still standing on the same spot
yapping away, and with his sharp muzzle pointed
to the spot at which he had first discovered me.
Looking ahead, I could see the black buck, but
they were farther away than they had been.

Down the nullah I stole still to the accom-
paniment of that confounded yap, and finally
came abreast of the antelope to find that the only
shot I could now get was one of 100 yards. Do
what I would, I could not see my way to get
nearer, for they were now all fully on the alert
and facing the nullah, heads up and eyes and ears
wide on the gui vive. Also, I now had the sun,
which was glancing up over the horizon, full in
the eyes and on the fine sight, whose edges took
on a kind of halo.

That shot was a failure! Due entirely to ig-
norance of what the fox would be most likely to
do, and to an unnecessary attempt to hurry the
stalk.

There is another animal in the jungle which
it is very difficult to circumvent when he is on the
qui vive, and that is the monkey.

How many promising stalks end in failure
88

Antlers

owing to one’s having the bad luck to run into a
family party of these interesting, perhaps, but to
many somewhat revolting, animals.

I was on the prowl for sambhar or chitul one
evening in the Central Provinces, and the sun was
getting low on the horizon. We had turned camp-
wards and were tramping through a park-like
country, when suddenly we saw a herd of spotted
deer near a little mud nullah or drain, such as
are common in this part meandering through the
grassy lands. They were some 300 yards away,
and we were in doubt as to whether there was a
head worth shooting amongst them when the rays
of the setting sun caught and glinted on what
were evidently a pair of fine antlers on one of the
larger of the dark spots representing the herd,
whom I had thought was a doe. Yes! there again,
as he lifted his head. A fine trophy he carried.
But even as we commenced to move forward, a
tremendous outcry uprose in the branches of a
patch of forest situated just beyond the nullah
and 20 yards or so from the chitul.

It was a family party of monkeys who had just
caught sight of us.

We dropped at once, and looking back saw
that by circumventing a small patch of tree
jungle to our right we might be able to approach
comparatively close to the deer without the
monkeys spotting us. This we proceeded to
attempt. We got round the forest and out at its

89

Jungle By-Ways in India

lower end. The chitul had moved away to the
left, but we could still see them in some longish
grass, and we managed to reach unseen the
narrow mud channel or nullah. It was much
narrower and tortuous than I had imagined, and
it proved most intricate work following the wind-
ings of this funny little drain. There was only
just room for me to cross one foot over the other,
and it wound about so continually at sharp
angles and was in places so shallow that there
was every likelihood of my back being seen above
its banks, however low I bent.

However, calling up all the reserves of patience
I possessed, I followed the shikari, who, dressed
in a loin-cloth only, made light work of the
passage which I found so arduous. Every now
and then we took a cautious look. The deer
were still there, and with them some doe sambhar
apparently. Most of the chitul does were feeding,
but the stag and one or two of his harem were
on the gui vive, and an upward glance showed me
those confounded monkeys.

Onward I toiled, pouring with perspiration.
It was the middle of April, and any one who has
endeavoured to walk several hundred yards
bent double, with scarce room to cross one’s feet,
in the hot weather in the Central Provinces,
will have the liveliest recollections of what it
means, and of his own feelings during the per-
formance.

go

Antlers

We got to within 60-70 yards and came to a
halt. It was not a nice shot, as the grass was
so long that it made it imperative that I should
get up the bank, which here formed a little cliff

: 4% tay LAU 1 4
_ Ag fithy iT NS :

CAp) - A
a ; ‘eS ee Soe “iy
fi i ie ‘i —¥, sh me
Ain no SOP to Al vil ty ie:
/ jf i) hil. Yl" y Y : fal itt “Ith u =
Mitt,

The stag was on the guz vive.

Hh,
ae

of some 5 feet in height, to get a sight on the stag.
I crawled up with infinite caution. I don’t think
I made any noise, but the monkeys must have had
a very good look out up aloft, for as I was slowly
getting to my knees I heard a sharp squawk
followed by bedlam broke loose above. I sprang
to my feet on the instant, and had the mortifica-
gI

Jungle By-Ways in India
tion to see the stag disappearing into the forest.
On all sides the grass was in a seething commotion
—sambhar, all does with a couple of young stags ;
spotted deer, and a few barasingha does, had all
been feeding together in a little patch of grass not
more than 50 by 70 yards square in area.

Keep your best look out for monkeys when
stalking, and if they go one way in a forest, take
you the opposite direction if you wish to get any
sport.

THE MONKEYS’ PANCHAYIT

I was out early one morning in April strolling
quietly along a wide forest line with the high hopes
(how often do they remain hopes only!) that at
last my lucky star was in the ascendant, and that
I was going to get that record sambhar or chitul
for which so many of us live and hope and long
for. Hope long deferred maketh the heart sick,
said the poet or the preacher—which was it ? It
may be so, but I don’t think the poet could have
been a shikari man, or he would never have
written that, for the hopes of that “‘record”’ to
many of us are very long deferred, and may be
so prolonged that we find ourselves within measur-
able distance of that genteel poverty in the shape
of a pension of a pound a day with which a muni-
ficent and paternal Government rewards many
years’ long and arduous service in this glorious
Land of the East. Land of the aforetime Nabob

g2 ‘

Antlers

and Croesus in the English popular imagination ;
now exchanged for the commonly expressed
opinion, ‘ That of all the stuck-up and aloof people
on the face of the earth, commend me to the Anglo-
Indian, my dear. And who is she ?

‘They never entertain, and live in that poky
little house and give themselves airs.’ The reason
being, my good lady, that they who spend the best
of their lives serving their country end them in
genteel poverty. That is their reward for faithful
service to the State.

But let us get back to our monkeys. As I was
saying, although one may be nearing the end of
one’s years of service and still not have attained
that record head, still in the heart of the true
shikari the hope that the luck will come ever
remains fresh and green, and each trip only makes
him keener.

Strolling along meditating on this curious
trait in the sportsman’s character, I suddenly
rounded a corner and came upon some of the
large grey, long-tailed monkeys so common in
these forests. He is rather an amusing beggar,
this monkey, when he is at play. The present lot
were not, however, at play—not by any means.
They appeared to be holding a panchayit thus
early in the morning, and they had chosen for
the scene of their deliberations and eloquence a
boundary-post—one of those stout erections one
sees in the Central Provinces’ forests. A great

93

Jungle By-Ways in India

mound or cumulus of stones, embedded in which
is a barked tree-trunk. The father of all the
monkeys, a venerable and hoary old sinner who
subsequently gave me back stare for stare and
waxed most profane on my interrupting his pro-
ceedings, was perched on top of the post with his
chief secretary to government, a long, spare
monkey, squatting up behind him in a most
uncomfortable position. For the head of the
administration occupied most of the top of the
post, and there was precious little room for the
chief secretary. However, this occurs in the case
of other beings of a more exalted rank in the
animal kingdom. The more lowly members of
the panchayit were grouped about in various
elegant positions on the stones at the foot of the
post. I took the whole thing in at a glance as I
quietly rounded the corner, and the impression
left on my mind was that the chief secretary and
members were having an uncommonly poor time
of it, and that the Old Man was walking into them
over something in no measured manner. Perhaps
he had been getting an urgent reminder from some
one even bigger than himself, or perhaps his better
half had been dressing him down. It is curious
how often these strong men (and monkeys) are
held in subjection by, and tremble before, their
sweeter halves.

Whatever the reason, he was passing it on,
and the chief secretary looked supremely un-

94 *

Antlers

happy, and, as remarks were snapped at him over
the old man’s shoulder, would have certainly pre-
ferred any lowlier station to his exalted but at
present extremely undesirable position. This
unhappiness was mingled with alarm on my un-
expected appearance. It is not always convenient
to have awkward outsiders at these deliberations.
Their evidence might be eminently undesirable
in that it so obviously conflicts with, and throws
doubt on, the wisdom of the policy already decided
upon, and which the assembly of the panchayit
is a mere formal matter to satisfy troublesome
thinking monkey minds. Also, it is not well that
the methods by which the panchayit finally comes
to an unanimous opinion should be witnessed
by outsiders, who might subsequently ask strange
questions. The members melted away like snow
into the adjoining forest on my appearance. But
I was not watching them. The Old Man, I noted,
was in far too great and royal a rage to care just
then for me or any one else. I noticed this. But
the face to watch was that of the chief secretary.
He did not dare to move before his chief, and yet
to his intense alarm H.H. was not moving. All
the alternations of hope, appeal, disgust, pain,
fear, etc., passed in a conflicting manner across his
countenance, but finally fear chased the rest away,
and with a last glance of agonized appeal at his
chief he emitted a screech in which respect,
entreaty and apology were all commingled, and
99

Jungle By-Ways in India

overpowered by fear took a wild leap for
safety. The old chap—I beg his pardon—the
head of the administration, hurled some strong
invective at his lieutenant for his cowardice, and
then turned the vials of his wrath in my direction,

es

‘ oe heag (ILE

Overpowered by fear he took a wild leap for safety.

and let me have the outpourings of his soul to the
full. I confess I soon began to feel as if I should
fall into the same state of terrorized subjection
in which he evidently kept his chief secretary and
members of the panchayit if the matter was
prolonged. ‘And besides, the old fellow,’ I
reflected, ‘is rousing the whole forest and staining

96 d

Antlers

the purity of the glorious fresh air with his profane
and intemperate language.’ I continued my
approach, and really you would have thought
that the old gentleman was going to have a fit.
He jumped about on the top of the boundary-post
in the most marvellous manner, cursing me the
while with his best, and it was not till I was within
a few yards of the mound that he took a magnifi-
cent leap, spitting out at me as he clove the air his
final benediction.

‘That old fellow,’ I meditated, as I continued
on my way, ‘for good or evil rules the roost,
there is little doubt of that. His panchayit are
mere puppets in his hands. Is it for the best or
not ? Who can say ?’

PART II
HORNS

Beni sear
Ta,

dy
i

CHAPTER I

Bison—The gaur and mithan—Size of horns—Habits—First experi-
ences—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.

BISON

ISON tracking on foot! One of the
finest, most fascinating, and most ardu-
ous of all Indian sports its devotees will
tell you. And they are not far wrong!

Of all the jungle denizens we have become
acquainted with in India, the bison, in spite of
Iol

Jungle By-Ways in India
his vast bulk, is the shyest and most timid,
wariest, and the most difficult to approach.

It is not only that he is possessed of almost
supernatural powers of hearing. He is also the
possessor of a nose which can pick up a scent of
danger at incredibly long distances away. In
addition to these two acute senses, so useful to
him for his self-preservation, there is the vast bulk
of a mighty body surmounted by a head bearing
massive horns which he makes use of when,
driven to bay and perhaps sorely wounded, he
charges down on his aggressor with a blind fury.
The great body is supported by strong clean legs,
adapted to carry him tremendous treks on end
once his ever-alert senses have assured him that
danger is present in his neighbourhood.

Have you ever seen a fine bull bison on his
native heath—to wit, on his native hill-side, or
standing in some shady bamboo-covered little
river-terrace during the heat of the day—or again,
when, driven to bay or hard hit, with eye flashing
fire and hoof tearing up the turf beneath him, he
searches eagerly round for the enemy he is so
anxious to charge! Gone now are the natural
shyness and timidity, for his slow temper and pas-
sions have been aroused, and he has but the one
wish—common to all animals worthy of a place in
the world once they are roused—to fight and to
kill.

Watch the fine fellow. You cannot help ad-

102

Horns

miring him, even whilst being fully aware that on
the pressure of a trigger your life may in all proba-
bility hang. Coal-black is he, and standing well
over seventeen hands, with a tremendously high
wither and spinal arch on the back. As he stands
with head thrown up, with the high, whitish yellow,
hair-covered frontal bone, massive dull yellow or
yellow-black horns (blunted at the points, much
crinkled and corrugated at their bases, with the
tips far apart—the sign of old age), coal-black
body with the skin shining like satin, and four
clean white stockings from the knee downwards,
is he not a perfect picture and one the like of
which you will see nowhere else ? Here he stands.
in his native wilds, and yet one would dare swear
that he had just received such a grooming from
the hands of adoring worshippers, as the Great
Bulls of Memphis must have been given in the
days of the ancient Egyptians—so clean and sleek
and well-tended does he look.

An old solitary bull is he. He has done with
philanderings with the softer sex, with a harem
of cows ever about him to worry and bother,
eat all the titbits, and perpetually set him
galloping over rocky hills in the glare of the hot
sun on false alarms. Quite able is he to maintain
an adequate qu vive by himself without others
to do it for him ; for warier by far than the cow is
the old solitary bull.

He it is that one is ever on the look out for

103

Jungle By-Ways in India
when bison tracking; and although one may
often have to follow up the tracks of a herd in the
hope of finding a decent bull in it, one is ever
ready to relinquish them for the fresh ones of an
old solitary bull.

The bison or gaur or gayal (Bos gaurus), as dis-
tinguished from the gayal or mithan, inhabits,
according to Blanford, all the great hilly forest
tracts of the Indian Peninsula—Assam, Burma,
and the Malay Peninsula. Its extreme north-
western habitat is probably the Rajpipla Hills,
near Broach. It is not to be found in the grass
jungles of the Gangetic plain, except near the
Himalaya, and is not found in the fine Terai grass
jungles of the United Provinces. In Nepal and
eastwards it roams over the great grass jungles at
the foot of the Himalaya. South of the Ganges it
is present in Chota Nagpur, Orissa, the Northern
Circars, the Central Provinces, Hyderabad terri-
tories, Mysore, and throughout the Western Ghats.

The bison inhabits forest or high grass usually
in or close to hilly country, and is found either
singly, as solitary bulls or dried-up cows, or in
herds which may number three or four only, or
may total as many as thirty animals or even more.
They feed chiefly on grasses and young bamboo
shoots. They cannot be termed browsers, al-
though I have found them to eat leaves and even
bark.

Large and heavy as these animals are, they
104 =

Horns

move about in the hilly, precipitous country, such
as is to be found in the Central Provinces and
Western Ghats, for instance, with ease, climb-
ing up and down narrow stony paths with all
the apparent facility of a goat. They are pos-
sessed of tremendous powers of endurance, and
when thoroughly frightened will undertake im-
mense treks.

Burke gives the average horn measurement as
2 feet 7 inches, the maximum at 414 inches.
Colonel Pollok would appear to hold the record
with 6 feet 10 inches. Anything over 4o inches
is seldom met with now-a-days.

The period of gestation appears to be still a
matter of dispute. Breeding is said to take place
in the cold weather; and in the Peninsula of
India, according to Blanford, calves are mostly
born in August or September, and a few early in
April, May, or June.

The animals are apparently subject to many of
the diseases of domestic cattle, and a kind of
anthrax at times decimates them, as was
the case in Mysore in 1903, when both bison,
sambhar, and elephants were found dead in the
jungles in considerable numbers.

The mithan is similar to the gaur, its most
marked difference being in the very different skull
and horns it possesses as shown here. The head
is shorter with shorter nasala ; the forehead quite
flat, and the transverse outline of the vertex

105

Jungle By-Ways in India
between the horn cores straight and not arched.
The horns are blackish throughout and are nearly
straight, spreading outwards and directed more
or less upwards at the tips, but not inwards. They
average II inches. Mr. E. Stuart Baker holds
a record with 222 inch. The animal is smaller than
the gaury, and it is not difficult to distinguish
between them.

The history and distribution of the mithan
have been matters of considerable dispute for
years.

All are agreed that tame mithan are to be
found in the possession of the inhabitants of the
Tippirah Hills, and in the hills both north and
south of the Assam Valley. I have seen many
tame animals in the South Lushai Hills and
Chittagong hill-tracts, and even in villages in the
Chittagong Collectorate. I am also of opinion that
the animal undoubtedly exists in a wild state in
these latter areas, and the villagers will be found
to endorse this opinion. I have also shot the
gaury in the Chittagong Collectorate hill-forests
and in the Chittagong hill-tracts.

The mithan is also supposed to extend down
into Burma and Tenasserim, through the Arrakan
hill-tracts, where it is undoubtedly to be found in
a domesticated state.

The mithan breeds freely with the humped
cattle, and domesticated animals may be found
with the village herds out in the forest. The

106

\d

HORNS OF INDIAN BISON OR GAUR

HORNS OF THE MITITAN

Horns

period of gestation appears to be stil] open to dis-
pute.
FIRST EXPERIENCES WITH BISON

Well do I remember the first time I came within
measurable distance of seeing my first bison. It
was my first year in India, and I was out in the
fine jungles of Chota Nagpur in July risking with
equanimity a bad dose of malarial fever, in the
keenness which was prepared to face any amount
of discomfort in an effort to bag a bison.

I was encamped alone in a wild part of the
country, some seventy miles from the station ;
and two days’ heavy and incessant rain had kept
me a prisoner near the tents, my sole occupation
being an endeavour to induce some queer-looking
fish to leave their watery abode for my frying-pan.

The third morning the usual call at 4 o’clock
found that the fates were propitious. It was
starlight and fine, and Bishu the shikari said that
we should get off as soon as possible. Tumbling
into shikar kit, and swallowing a substantial
chota hazari, I climbed into the saddle, for I
found I could ride a couple of miles or so, and we
set out. Our party consisted of Bishu, the head
shikari (one of the very best trackers I have ever
known), his assistant, who came near to rivalling
his master, and a couple of coolies to carry the
luncheon-basket and cartridge-bags.

As I rode along in the freshness of early morning
my spirits rose, and my hopes ran high that

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Jungle By-Ways in India
at last most persistent ill-luck would have a
change, and that perseverance would meet its
reward. The track was a vile one, and the mare
had to pick her way carefully down a trappy hill
and cross a stony-bedded river in half flood.
As it was still dark this was a matter of no small
difficulty, and I am nearly let into the river before
we get across and on to the path beyond.

And now pale gleams are seen in the east, rapidly
broadening, for this is an Indian sunrise, and
out here we don’t soften things. Transitions are
sharp, and from tartarean gloom we leap to the
glorious brightness of day. See how yonder
forest-clad hill, but now so gloomy and silent, is
lighting up. Watch the shadows swiftly flying
from the hill-tops to the valleys beneath, quickly
pursued by vedettes from Aurora’s chariot.

In the valley trees and objects are leaping
out of the obscurity. The whole east is aglow,
and the sun has commenced to shine on another
“long, long Indian day.’

The path winds its way between the hills,
covered with forest and a thick, tangled matting
of creepers and undergrowth. On either side
bamboo clumps and brakes appear at intervals,
the feathery tops of this beautiful plant gracefully
dipping over the path. A little farther on down this
path, which ends abruptly some three miles ahead
in the Government Reserved Forest, we come to a
giant pipal tree (Ficus religiosa). With the glory

108

Horns

of the morning light on its buttressed silvery trunk
and long-pointed crimson leaves (for they are still
young), it is indeed a beautiful object. We are
here at the edge of a pretty hill-stream, and

A giant pipal tree with its buttressed silvery trunk.

dismounting, the pony is sent back to camp,
and we cross the stream and proceed in a south-
easterly direction, intending to make for the
Kuilibrum Hill, unless we come upon fresh tracks
before. After a walk of a couple of miles we reach
a small pool, and round this there were many
marks of bison, showing that a herd had been

there, but not recently. In fact, I was soon given
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Jungle By-Ways in India

to understand that, owing to the heavy rain of the
past few days, tracking would be very difficult
work unless we came upon tracks made after
the rain had ceased. It must have been somewhere
about six o’clock or a little later when we left the
pool and headed for the hill, having decided to
follow the tracks of three bison which had made
off in this direction the day before. So Bishu
said—though I was at a loss to understand how
he arrived at this conclusion. [As an instance of
the marvellous tracking powers of these men I
may quote here the following. One hot weather
we were on a barren trappy hillside of rock. I
asked Bishu how he could possibly say the bison
had gone over that way. He pointed to a smzll
piece of stone. I picked it up, and could just
see that it was slightly darker on the face which
lay uppermost. It had been turned over by the
bison’s hoof shortly before. This was tracking !]
The ground soon became difficult, and we had
some very severe climbing, not so much on
account of the elevation of the hills as owing to
their stony nature. We advanced in this way for
an hour or so, the tracks at last leading into a
lovely valley, in which we hoped the animals
would have stopped to feed for some time. My
eye, still comparatively new to the Indian forest,
and more especially to the Indian forest in the
rains, was delighted by some fine sal trees of
enormous growth and girth, but growth ot all

110

Horns

kinds was present. A stream ran down the
centre of the valley, and on its banks were
seen the stately banyan, the beautiful pipal,
and brakes of the feathery bamboo. The whole
valley lay in a flood of golden sunlight, and one
could not but pause to admire the prospect whilst
the shikaris hunted for the tracks of the animals
we were following or for fresher ones. The valley
was not very wide, and immediately in front rose
a very stony hill, which I mentally prayed I might
not have to climb. The shikaris soon returned,
and reported that there were no fresh tracks,
and that our old ones led up the stony hill, and
so up we went. When approaching the summit
we came upon a small footpath or rough track
made by wild animals, trending round the hill,
and this path the bison had followed. We proceeded
in their footsteps over frightfully rocky ground. I
found negotiating large boulders, encumbered by a
heavy rifle (for one should carry one’s weapon
when bison-tracking, as one rarely knows when
one may get a snap shot), pretty heavy work under
the rays of a July sun. The trail led down the
hill, and we finally found ourselves in a rocky
nullah bed, along which we toiled. The sun was
very powerful, and I was grateful for the shade
the trees growing here afforded. The ravine soon
branched, and a consultation took place. The
bison had here separated, two going off in the
branch which, so I was told, finally headed off

III

Jungle By-Ways in India
in a westerly direction, and the third up the
other branch. We determined to follow the
latter.

At about 9 a.m. we reached the top of an outer
spur of Kuilibrum, and here a few minutes’
breathing space were taken.

I determined to make straight for the summit of
the Kuilibrum, and from that height take a good
look round at the surrounding country. The
final climb up of some 500 feet was almost vertical
and very stiff work. I was well rewarded, however,
as a glorious view of the surrounding country was
obtained. Those who have toured through and
shot through the beautiful jungles of the Central
Provinces and Chota Nagpur have rarely anything
but praise for this magnificent country. Out
in the plains and elevated plateaux, which run
from a few hundred square yards to a varying
number of square miles in extent, one finds oneself
ever in sight of the rolling tops of the surrounding
hills which edge the horizon either in soft, smooth
topped lines, or jut up in isolated but ever rounded
or dome-shaped masses.

Forests clothe most of these hills with a beautiful
luxuriance, little verdure-filled valleys winding in
and out between the forest-clad or trappy barren
hill-sides, and in these valleys one will ever have
with one the tinkling sound of some purling
brook. The hill-ranges at times run up to eleva-

tions of several thousand feet, the cultivated or
T12

Horns

forest-clad plateau or tableland itself being about
Iooo or so, whilst isolated peaks may reach
3000 feet or more. This was the case with Kuili-
brum, the peak I now stood upon. There at my
feet lay the forest I had just come through,
looking as flat as a pancake, and yet one knew it
for a network of stony hills. Out yonder a white
speck is gleaming in the sunshine amidst a sea of
deep green. It is a small forest rest-house many
miles away. All round the horizon hills are piled
up in a picturesque confusion, and in the blue haze
of the distance can be seen the great range on
which lies the Ranchi plateau and the head-
quarters of the Commissioner who rules over
this wild country.

I carefully sweep all the near spurs of Kuili-
brum for bison, but without success. We pro-
ceed eastwards along the ridge. Suddenly my
rifle goes up mechanically. What is that springing
along some 60 yards ahead ? I only get a glimpse,
but think it is a deer. The shikari touches my
arm, and I see that I have mistaken a lungoor,
a monkey standing some 4 feet high, for a deer.
I soon see that we have disturbed a family party,
and their loud whoops resound through the forest.
Big, heavy, greyish fellows these, with enor-
mously long, powerful arms and tails. They soon
take to the trees, and the noise is tremendous.

I now decided to halt and have a little lunch
and a rest to recoup my somewhat jaded energies.

I 113

Jungle By-Ways in India

We had been going nearly seven hours, and that
in the greenhouse temperature of a sunny July
day in this part of the world.

At noon we are again on our feet, and strike
eastwards down a prominent spur of this range
for the country beneath. I was following Bishu
down the steep slope, when he suddenly jumped
aside and lifted one foot. I had already stepped
in his tracks, but skipped out of them with
promptitude. He had been bitten on the instep
by a snake. The brute, some 3 feet in length,
was not apparently a dangerous one (my know-
ledge of the reptilia was at the time insufficient
to enable me to determine this), as Bishu, picking
a leaf of some low herbaceous plant, rubbed the
drop or two of blood from his instep and held on
his way. The heavy shooting-boots and gaiters I,
in my ignorance, wore in my griffin days when
stalking, as at other times, had protected me,
though I had trodden heavily on the snake.
Sambhar skin uppers and rope soles are, by the
way, the boots for stalking-work in the country I
am describing, save in the rains, when rubber soles
or a light pair of ‘footer’ boots are necessary.
Rope soles are, of course, useless in the wet.

At the base of this spur we came upon a great
mound of rubbish, with a small burrow in it. I
could not imagine what on earth it could be, and
in my thirst for knowledge of all jungle lore I
turned to Bishu. He told me it was a wild boar’s

lig c

Regh t fers

Tracks + ndron Alison ox Gaur : +.

Ly hina Robe hens

Jungle By-Ways in India

lair. Curiously enough he was not at home. We
prodded and routed it about to enable me to
examine the abode thoroughly. Piggy makes it,
in order to enable him to snooze away the hot
part of the day, with a snug thatch roof over him
to keep off the hot rays of the sun and the heavy
rain of the monsoon. The accommodation is
somewhat cramped, however, and one could not
help but surmise that the atmosphere inside must
get somewhat stuffy. The shikaris, as soon as we
got off the steep slopes, started in earnest to look
for fresh tracks, and after half an hour’s work they
found the trail of an old bull. Quite fresh it ap-
peared, and we took it up, only the trackers and
myself, the rest of the men being left behind.
To my inexperienced eye these tracks looked like
those of an ordinary cow; they are, however,
rounder, larger and less pointed in front. I
show them in the sketch overleaf. Now I saw my
men really at work. Every mark was considered
carefully between them, but quite silently. The
green shoots of bamboos and jungle trees and
shrubs on each side of the trail were closely
and critically examined, in order to judge of the
amount and freshness of the sap oozing from
cropped parts, and thus enable an estimate to
be formed of the time at which the bison passed
the spot. Not a word was spoken ; signs being
the only language. For a couple of miles the
tracking was very easy, and I moved along in
116 .

Horns

momentary expectation of seeing a giant form get
up in front.

We had now dipped into a little valley, and
begun to breast a rocky hill. The marks were so
fresh that we all fully expected to see the beast
when we reached the summit, which we ap-
proached on our stomachs. To say that I was
excited is to put the matter mildly. I thought
they could all hear my heart going like a sledge-
hammer against my ribs.

On reaching the crest I found that the ground
dipped away into a valley covered with a thick
vegetation, and careful observation showed that
the bison’s tracks led straight down into this
valley. We went quietly down the slope, entered
the dense jungle, and proceeded cautiously.

In every thicket I thought I saw the horns of a
bison, and for the next hour and a half as we
followed the tracks down the valley my senses
were kept on the quz vive.

The tracks of the bull were so fresh that
Bishu thought we should run into him at any
moment, and my hopes were high of at last satis-
fying my ambition and meeting a bull bison face
to face.

I had been so intensely interested in the tracking
work that I had paid scant attention to anything
else, and had not noticed the change in the weather.
A loud clap of thunder first drew my attention to
the fact that the sun had disappeared, and that

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Jungle By-Ways in India
the sky was overcast. I looked hurriedly up.
Could anything be more aggravating! Here was
the cup almost, if not quite, at my lips, and yet
it seemed as if it was to be dashed away at the
moment of seeming success.

Kuilibrum was hidden in the darkest and most
threatening storm-cloud I had looked upon. All
the horizon behind me was a deep, gloomy, slate
colour; and as I looked a blaze of fire flashed
athwart the dark glowering mass, and the artillery
of heaven opened in a deep-toned roar, which
echoed and re-echoed amongst the hills until the
whole earth seemed to be quivering and respond-
ing to the vibrations. *Twas magnificent, but to
me, on the verge of seeing, and as I hoped of
bagging, my first bison, it appeared the cruellest
luck. It was only too obvious that the flood-gates
would soon open upon us, and then good-bye to
our chance of seeing the bison. My fears were
soon realized. A spot containing about a pint of
water fell on my nose, a second containing about
a quart, and the sluices of heaven were opened.
I was wet through in the first minute. ‘ We talk
about rain at home,’ I muttered. ‘ We only have
fine mist there.’ We plodded along on the tracks,
as I was determined to stick to them as long as
possible ; but after half an hour, by which time
the waterspouts lessened a little, we had to give
it up. We were on the side of another stony
hill, and tracking was hopeless with water pour-

118

Horns

ing down in miniature watercourses at every
step.

With a groan of disgust I heard the shikaris say
it was no good. Three hours over the most
abominable ground on as hot a trail as the keenest
could wish for, and all for nothing !

“How far to the tents?’ I briefly asked.
‘Three miles,’ was the reply. I was surprised, as
I had not thought the trail headed so straight for
home. However, being still green and young, I
took the information at its face-value, and we
started off. Needless to say, I had travelled over
a good eight miles before I reached the tents,
Bishu keeping diplomatically in the rear as the
three miles lengthened into four, five, six, and
seven !

I reached camp fairly dead beat at 6 p.m.,
having been out over thirteen hours.

I had two other days out that July—both un-
successful, owing to the incessant heavy rain, and
then had to return to the station. It was not till
the following hot weather that I was destined to
see my first bull bison in his native wilds.

HOW I SAW MY FIRST BULL BISON

It was early in March that work took me into
the bison country again, and one morning, Bishu,
the tracker, self, and the usual two followers, left
the camp, which was being struck to march that

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Jungle By-Ways in India
day, as the first streaks of dawn were tingeing the
sky red.

We went due east, as I wished to climb the
Dindaburu Hill, 2480 feet in height, to have a
look at the surrounding forest from that elevated
post. After proceeding for about an hour we
picked up the tracks of a bison who had passed the
preceding night. After following these for some
time we had to give them up, as they led in the
opposite direction to that in which we had to go.
A sambhar’s fresh tracks did likewise, and the
next three hours proved uneventful.

We had now reached the outer slopes of Din-
daburu, and began to wind up round the hill.
Tracks of game abounded in every direction, and
bison were evidently numerous in the locality.
Pea-fowl and a few monkeys were all we saw,
however, and we reached the summit at II.30.
The view was not as good as I had hoped for,
as the summit was partially clothed with trees.
We came up along a watershed, and this we found
divided, giving two separate peaks with a steepish
valley between them. I lunched here, and we then
set off down the slope again. We had dropped
down the first steep portion, and I was engaged
in making hotes on the forest here, when a ‘hist!’
from Bishu made me drop pencil, tape, and note-
book and seize the rifle. I looked round to see
him glaring ahead and making frantic signals for

silence. We squatted, and he crawled ahead.
120 *

Horns

When 30-40 yards away he turned and eagerly
beckoned me forward with a wide grin on his face.
I now had a very bad three minutes, endeavouring
to walk like a fairy in huge shooting-boots over
dry, crackling leaves. Suddenly, before I had gone
more than half-way, I heard a short, sharp, snappy,
barking roar, followed by a rush and smashing of
twigs, and then silence. I saw nothing, but knew
instinctively that it must be a bison. The beast
had made off over a hill in front, and we at once
started to skirt it, Bishu gliding along like a snake,
and I feeling as if. I was an elephant moving
through the jungle. On rounding the hill I found
Bishu, who had got ahead, in the bed of a small
nullah, beckoning to me frantically, again with
the well-known grin on his features. I advanced
very slowly and quietly, and as I did so heard a
movement in the low jungle on the opposite side
of the ravine. I glanced eagerly at the place,
and there was the outline of the upper part of a
great black mass with two yellow-black horns
slowly moving up the hill-side. My heart jumped
into my mouth as I saw my first bison, a fine old
bull, in front of me. The bull stopped diagonally
on offering a fair shoulder shot. Did I gaze at
the glorious sight one instant too long, or was it
only the excited state of my nerves ? Who knows ?
I raised the rifle and sighted on the shoulder.
Before I could press the trigger the bull turned to-

wards me, head on—then suddenly wheeled round
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Jungle By-Ways in India

and bolted. The low jungle was fairly thick, but
I fired. We both rushed madly forward. It will
have been gathered that I was a tyro at the game,
and Bishu had completely lost his head. Fear
and he were strangers. The bison had plunged
ahead at the shot, and we dropped into a small
offshoot nullah, hoping that if badly wounded
it would cross this higher up. In this we were
disappointed, and at Bishu’s insistence we re-
turned to the spot where the bison had stood as I
fired. This we found to be 110 yards from my
own position, but I had little to be proud of at
missing.

What a glorious beast he was as I first got sight
of him! A grand head with massive horns glisten-
ing almost white in the sunlight, and a black
glossy coat which shone like the satin coat of
some blue-blooded racehorse. On reaching the
spot where he had stood, we commenced searching
for blood. Bishu maintained I had hit an inter-
vening twig and gone above the bison. I hoped
not, but after a careful search I was forced to
allow I had missed.

Of course, I was eager to follow up. I was told
it was useless, but it was unlikely that young hot
blood and ignorance would listen to this. It was
about 2 p.m. when I fired at the bull. We followed
his tracks for about 24 hours. The shikaris then
gave it up and said it was useless going on, the
more so that the trail led in the opposite direction

122

LOHS WACTOOHS VIVA V ONIVAIAO NO ATIVNODVIG GAddOLS TInd FHL

“Jap ‘MOSSBT "DAL

Horns

to the place in which our camp, which was moving
that day, had orders to pitch at. He said we were
a good 6-8 miles away from camp, and his esti-
mate turned out to be fairly correct. We picked
up the camp at 6.30, I in a very cast-down frame
of mind at having missed my first bison.

It was but a couple of days or so later, and whilst
on the same trip, that I wounded a bison. We
had started before dawn, as usual, and had
followed the trail of a couple of bison all the
morning. At about 11.30 we found ourselves on
the summit of a watershed, from which a fine view
of the surrounding forest-clad hills and cultivated
plateaux was obtainable. I elected to stop here
and lunch. We got on the move again before
I p.m., and following down the slope of the water-
shed, Bishu suddenly dropped like a stone. I
did the same, and for a minute no movement was
made. Then Bishu wormed his way a yard or
two forward, and peered over the far side of the
crest we were on. He waved me forward, and on
reaching him, there below me was a herd of bison
taking their midday siesta under a fine old mango
tree. They looked just like a herd of cattle in the
old country. Some were seated, others standing
up flicking off the flies with the brushes at the
ends of their long tails whilst they chewed the cud.
Some of the youngsters were wandering about in
that restless fashion common to youngsters of all

species of mammals.
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Jungle By-Ways in India
My eyes grew actually dim with excitement
at the sight below me. At last I had beneath me
that which I had covered so many miles and faced
a considerable amount of hardship to see. Here
was a whole herd of the animals in the wild, free
forest !

A herd of bison under a fine old mango tree.

It was difficult to realize that they were really
true wild bison who would be off at the slightest
suspicion of danger. With the remembrance of
the old bull of a few days before in my mind, I
did not wish to wait too long. A glance of inquiry
at Bishu, and he pointed out to me the beast to
fire at, for my experience was not sufficient at that
time to enable me to pick out the bulls from the
cows from my position—at all times a difficult

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Horns

matter in jungle. Raising the rifle, I took a care-
ful sight on the animal and fired, and got in a
second barrel as the beast started forward. We
dashed at a breakneck pace down the hill, got
into the 4 feet high grass at the bottom, which
filled the little terrace upon which the mango
tree stood, and ran plump into a bison coming in
our direction. Ihad reloaded as I ran down the hill,
and fired point-blank at this beast at a distance
of less than 10 yards. My shot had the effect
of turning him, and he made off in the wake of the
retreating herd which, after scattering in all direc-
tions, appeared from the noise ahead to be closing
up as they breasted at a great pace a scrub
jungle-covered slope in front.

This time I had no doubts, as I felt certain
I had not missed. One of the two shots I fired
from the crest had palpably missed the bison—
gone over him. I had not allowed for the diffi-
culty of firing down at objects almost directly
below one, and committed the usual tyro’s
mistake.

The trackers soon found blood, and in plenty,
and telling the lunch-basket carriers to remain
about 100 yards behind us, we took up the trail.
Often do I look back to the afternoon that
followed. One of the most exciting and yet most
aggravating of the many exciting hours I have
passed in the Indian jungle! Hour after hour
through the long afternoon we followed that blood

125

Jungle By-Ways in India

trail, every moment expecting to come upon
the bison or to receive a charge on our flank.
For a long way the tracks were easy to follow.
Then the blood began to grow scarcer ; but even
then Bishu maintained that the bison was badly
hit, and that we should get him all right. And so
on, till the shadows lengthened, the sun dropped
behind a neighbouring hill-crest, the west flamed
red and orange, pale yellow and green, and then
turned to grey, and we were in the dark. In the
dark, miles away from camp, and with but a scant
idea of the distance we were separated from it!
My feelings will not admit of description at this
termination of my second view of bison. Not
for one moment during the afternoon had a thought
of faltering entered my head. I felt as certain
that I should get that bison as one is of picking
up a rabbit one has knocked over in the fallow at
home. And this was the end! As soon as it was
evident to me even that we should have to give
it up, I handed over the rifle to Bishu, and from
keen alertness my muscles relaxed and I felt
dog-tired.

That tramp back! It remains in my memory
as a terrible nightmare. On and on and on I
stumbled’ after the shikaris. Often they lost
their way or appeared to be doubtful of it.
Through ravines, over stony hills, through bamboo
brakes and scrub jungle we blundered along,
and it was nearly 3 a.m. before we reached the

126 -

Horns

camp. I was done brown, as the expression goes,
having been on my feet for the best part of twenty
hours. A cup of soup, and my boots and coat off,
and I dropped like a log, fast asleep, too weary
to remember my disappointment and disgust
over the loss of the bison.

It was nearly two months later that I finally
bagged my first bison. It was in the piping hot
month of May, and I had been sent out by my chief
to accompany Colonel ——, who, having shot
every animal in Asia save bison, wished to add
this trophy to his collection. A nicer outing
and a better sportsman I have rarely had or met.
It was this true sportsman-like spirit which cost
him the first bison he had ever set eyes on.
Having reached the bison country, we left before
dawn next morning, having arranged to keep
together. Just as it was getting light one of
the trackers stopped and muttered ‘hathi.’ We
looked about, and there, climbing out of a narrow
ditch or nullah, was a fine elephant with a pair
of magnificent tusks. He had not seen us, and
went off, skirting a low, rocky hill in the direction
opposite to the one we were moving in. At the
time we were on the tracks of four bison, but they
were not fresh ones. Shortly after meeting the
elephant we picked up the fresh tracks of what,
according to Bishu, was a fine bull.

We plodded along upon these for some three or

127

Jungle By-Ways in India

four hours, and were moving slowly along an
elephant path up a little valley, when the same
tracker who had previously spoken dropped back
and whispered, ‘hathi.’ The path we were on ran
up asmall river-terrace bounded by hills and with
the stream running on one side, the banks being
densely clothed with bamboo clumps. The ter-
race itself was covered with the coarse tussocky
“sabai,’ or ‘babar’ grass, with a few scattered
sal trees here and there. At the tracker’s whisper
we looked up, and there coming down the elephant
track, some 150 yards off, was an elephant. We
halted and watched him. Slowly he approached
us, totally unaware of our presence, picking up
the red earth and sand from the path with the
tip of his trunk and chucking it over his back. It
looked exactly as if a small red hill or gigantic
termite heap was moving towards us.

As he still continued to approach and gave no
sign of having winded us, we got off the path and
stood behind four small stunted sal trees which
happened to grow close to it. The trackers and
lunch coolie were placed behind, and we slipped
cartridges into our rifles. We were luckily heavily
armed; but the regulations laid down on the
Colonel’s shooting permit against shooting ele-
phants were strict and plain, and he thought
it necessary, probably seeing my _ eagerness,
to remind me that he at any rate was not
allowed to fire at elephants. No more was I for

128 ‘

Horns

that matter, but I had not his years over my
head.

On came the huge animal, and we soon saw that
it was our friend of the morning again. There was
no mistaking those tusks. I doubt if I shall ever
see a finer pair. So great was their length that it

eee ee res

The elephant stood the very embodiment of vigilance.

almost looked as if it was necessary for the animal
to keep its head up to prevent their catching the
ground and tripping him. Truly he was a lordly.
beast as he advanced, and I found myself almost
praying that a shot might be necessary.

That elephant came on absolutely unconsciously,
until we computed that six strides would bring him
into the middle of us.

He then came to a sudden halt. Forward came

K 129

Jungle By-Ways in India
the ears in a great flap and up went the trunk,
and he stood the very embodiment of vigilance,
and, so it appeared to my acutely strung senses,
of mischief as well. I was directly facing him, my
rifle up at the shoulder. The Colonel was a little
to my left so as to be able to get a side shot if
necessary ; and Bishu, the plucky Bishu, armed
with his tiny axe, was a pace or two to my right
rear. So we all stood, for what to me seemed an
interminable space of time. Probably it was at
most half a minute. I spent the period in re-
gretting I had not fired sooner—Colonel or no
Colonel, rules or no rules. We were not paid to
risk our lives from wandering wild animals whom
rules protected. Our good luck (or was it bad
luck!) was with us, however, for after standing
like a statue for the half-minute, the great beast
spun round like a teetotum and went crashing off
through the grass, through the bamboo-shaded
stream, and up an opposite hill-side before one had
realized that he was not going to charge. I must
say that we all heaved great sighs of relief when
the tension was over; but I for one remained
bitterly disappointed at not having had a shot.
There is little doubt (and so I was told after-
wards by my chief) that we should not have made
the mistake in letting him get so close. Had he
charged from where he was, the odds are that he
must have got one of us. None of the coolies had
bolted. They were all just behind us, and if he

130

Horns

had not bagged one at the first rush, the little
terrace was far too exposed to have given us much
chance in a game of hide-and-seek with a wounded
and infuriated bull elephant.

As I look back I remember this meeting as one
of the most interesting episodes,.as it certainly
was one of the happiest, I have had in my jungle
career.

Within the hour we ran the bull bison to earth
in a bamboo brake upon this same stream, and it
was only when fairly close up that I discovered
that the Colonel was bent upon tossing for first
shot. As he was the visitor I point-blank re-
fused, and the minute it took to convince him, and
the slight noise we probably made during the
wrangle, cost us that bison plus a long weary
tramp. The Colonel crawled slowly forward. It
was a nasty place to try a stalk in. Suddenly I
heard the well-known snorting bark, a great crash
as the animal lunged forward in the bamboos, and
the beast was away.

The Colonel told me that he had seen a black
patch, but not knowing what part of the animal
it was, or even that it was the animal for certain,
he had not cared to fire. Asa matter of fact, he
believed afterwards that the patch he saw would
have given him a shoulder shot! Such is luck!

The next day was a red-letter day forme. We
left early as usual, and after being less than an
hour out from camp we came upon the fresh

131

Jungle By-Ways in India

tracks of a herd which had passed in the night.
We followed very slowly for about an hour, and

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We ran the bull bison to earth in a bamboo brake.

then Bishu signified that they were upon an oppo-

site fairly open slope. We were ourselves in

fairly dense sal forest. We stopped, carried on a

hurried consultation, at the end of which we sat
132

Horns

down, and Bishu went on ahead alone to ascertain
the exact whereabouts of the herd, and especially
of stragglers. He soon returned and told us to
take a rifle apiece only and come along, the rest of
the men being left behind. We followed warily
and very slowly in Bishu’s tracks, and at last
approached near the edge of the forest, which
ended a little way up the opposite rocky slope
which was covered with stunted bushes and grass
only. The herd was scattered over this slope, and
was grazing slowly up it. As we came up we
could see several of the animals, but could not
distinguish the heads well. As we refused to fire
from where we were Bishu had perforce to take
us nearer, and he moved us round to a small
narrow glade which looked right out on to the
hill. We took up positions behind sal trees and
watched the bison. We soon saw that it would be
impossible to get a near shot. There was dense
grass and bush on the edge of the forest, then an
open space, and then more scattered bushes in
which the bison were.

We could not advance a foot, and it therefore
meant a shot at at least 150 yards, and probably
over. I signalled to the Colonel to take the shot.
He refused, as I had expected, and then explained
that as he had with him only his 12-bore
rifle, it was impossible for him to take the shot.
I kept an eye on the bison all the time, whilst I
shoved my rifle towards him, but he, being the

133

Jungle By-Ways in India
good [sportsman that he was, would have none
of it.

I confess I was not keen on the shot. It was a
long one for my short experience. I watched a
particular brute, which, so far as I could make
out, was the one Bishu pointed out, until he
came slowly from behind a clump of bushes and
exposed the shoulder when, taking a mighty
breath, I pulled the trigger. Dead silence, followed
by three groans and a rush, or succession of rushes
rising to a roar, as the herd stampeded over the
brow of the hill and was gone. We dashed
forward. ‘Down; he’s down!’ shouted the
Colonel, and he was away to the right, whilst I
kept straight on for the spot where I had fired at
the bull and heard the groans. He had fallen in
his tracks, shot through the heart with a ‘500 black
powder Express, for it was before the days of
cordite sporting rifles. This is the only instance
I have personally seen of a bison being killed by a
single shot from a ‘500 at this distance.

The Colonel returned shortly. He had made
over the hill to see if he could get a shot at the
retreating herd. They had, however, vanished.

A thorough good sportsman, the Colonel was
as pleased as I was over my success, and paced
out the distance, which he vowed was fully 200
yards, an estimate which was practically correct,
for he made it 1g0 paces. The head was not a
particularly big one. I have shot finer since,

134 .

BUSHES

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Horns

but none gave me a feeling of such pride as my
first bull bison.

Had I been left to myself I would have sat
there and watched the obsequies performed, and
then have accompanied my bull back to camp.
I could not desert my comrade, however, so leaving
a man to go and fetch men from the camp, we
went on and had a long, fruitless day without a
single track of any freshness to gladden our eyes.

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CHAPTER II

Bison in Malabar—A sporting herd—Tropical forest in the monsoon
—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 missfre—An awkward predicament—Anxious
moments—Death of the bull.

A SPORTING HERD

HE following account of an adventure

I had with a herd of bison some years

ago down in Malabar appeared in the

Indian Feld shortly afterwards. I

reproduce it here, as it throws light on the habits
of this fine animal.

It was the darkest hour of the night—the hour
preceding dawn—as we left the Swiss chalet-
like wooden bungalow, situated picturesquely by
the side of a small winding stream at the foot of

136

*

Horns

the hills, and started out in search of a herd of
bison reported to be in the neighbourhood. The
bright silvery face of the lady of the night was
hidden behind thick banks of clouds which had
welled up from the sea-board the evening before,
and a thick, wet river-mist enveloped everything,
the trees standing up out of it like dark, wakeful
sentinels keeping watch and ward over the
marches of the animal world. The effluvia rising
from the damp, sodden jungle would have made
the most rabid amongst the disciples of the
Anopheles creed change his views as to the sole
source of the malaria fiend.

For an hour and more we plodded on in the
darkness, floundering through mire or stumbling
into the deep imprints left by wild elephants,
bison, and animals of the many descriptions which
comprised the fauna of this sportsman’s paradise.
‘Such,’ one thought, ‘must have been the state
of the water-sodden globe when the: animals
issued from the Ark at the bidding of the greatest
of mythological animal-tamers.’

The dawn broke slowly, almost unwillingly,
and the light struggled fitfully through the dense
mist. This latter, however, lightened perceptibly
as one got farther and farther away from the
stream, and as daylight dissipated the gloom
we could see that we had entered a dense bamboo
forest, the ground beneath our feet being more or
less of a morass. Less than a mile of this, and we

137

Jungle By-Ways in India
got into the open scrub again, and to our right the
hills appeared towering up amongst the masses
of slowly writhing cloud.
The effects given by the play of the morning
light upon this panorama of hill and slowly
rolling vapour were very beautiful.

To me
High mountains are a feeling, but the hum of human
cities torture.

We had now picked up the tracks of the herd,
not the small one of eight we had come to seek,
but of a much larger one, known to comprise
some thirty animals, amongst which was a good
old bull, which had been seen in the locality a few
days before. These tracks were quite fresh,
evidently made during the night, and we held
on our way in the utmost silence. Owing to the
sodden state of the jungle, stalking was by no
means difficult, but every now and then a twig
drier than the rest would get beneath one’s feet
and go off like a pistol-shot, and the large thorns
of the slender side branches of the giant bamboo
were a never-ending source of annoyance. Did
one stoop ever so low, even to assuming the
derogatory position of all fours, a sharp-pointed
spike would be sure to be ready to catch one
exactly in the centre of the back, and it required
considerable -self-restraint not to give vent to
audible maledictions. Or an unusually deep,

138 *

Horns

swampy part of the forest would be reached, to be
lightly passed over by the trackers, but in which,
being in thick shooting-boots and loaded with a
heavy rifle, one sunk to the knees. To get out
absolutely silently was an impossibility, and the
look upon the shikari’s face at the slightest noise
made one feel as if the lot of a condemned man
upon the scaffold with the rope round his neck
was by comparison quite an enviable one. Another
painful experience accompanying tracking, which
in its intensity becomes almost agony, is the
intense desire to cough, which often assails one.
This disagreeable experience must, I am sure, be
common to many. One struggles against it,
remembers that the wish is quite unusual, one
never ordinarily feels this idiotic desire, that it is
only necessary to think about something else to
forget all about it—it is of no use. After breathing
deeply, breathing lightly, breathing through the
nose, and not breathing at all, which results in
semi-suffocation, one has to give in, and then—
the shikari’s hopeless look of surprise and pain.
All the above experiences were gone through
as we cautiously followed on the trail of the
slowly moving herd. Fresher and fresher had
become the indications that they were not far off,
and for some fifteen minutes we had been moving
forward, the conditions being unusually favour-
able, without a sound to break the harmony of the
proceedings. Suddenly the silence is broken. A
139

Jungle By-Ways in India
short, sharp, snappy, bark-like roar cleaves the
air, a short rush in the forest on our left flank,
and we know that we are up to the herd and that
it has winded us.

See us they could not, nor we them, as we had
entered a giant bamboo forest interspersed with
tall trees and a thick growth of high grass. Intense
silence succeeded for a few seconds, broken only
by the twittering of a few small birds in a neigh-
bouring tree. Then followed the well-known and
intensely thrilling rush of heavy animals in heavy
jungle as the herd closed up, apparently uncertain
as to which point to look for the danger. As
animal after animal took fright the sounds in-
creased to a crashing roar, and the leader at last
making up its mind the roar bore down in our
direction with a deafening sound, as of some
great mountain-stream in turbulent flood. No
time had we for thought. Action was imperative.
A hurried whisper from Anacondu (the head
shikari), which was scarcely necessary, even if I
could have understood the gibberish which took
the place with him of a Christian language (his
English was limited to ‘ elephan,’ ‘ bisn,’ ‘ samur,’
mine, of the wild sounds he produced, nil), and
we closed up to a big bamboo clump which
happened to be handy. I waited, muscles braced
to their utmost tension, finger on trigger, and
nerves and heart playing hide-and-seek throughout

my anatomy. It was a wildly exciting moment,
140 é

Horns

and would have long marked the day with a
white corner-stone had not one even more en-
livening occurred later on. It was short-lived,
however, as the herd, suddenly swerving to their
left front as one, went crashing away through the
forest like a tornado. The foremost bison were
within 15 to 20 yards as they turned, but not one
did we see, owing to the thick cover. Relief was
written over the faces of my companions, and I
am sure it must have been very legibly imprinted
upon mine. So sudden had been the rush that
the whole thing could only have lasted a minute,
and yet one had lived a life in that short space of
time. Whilst the herd were trampling a broad
line through the forest, the roar gradually de-
creasing to a faint, far-off murmur—like a Calcutta
nor’-easter blowing itself out—we held a hurried
consultation, the trackers in words, I in forcible
pantomime. Anacondu lit a match (he had
matches of his own on him, but I noticed he used
mine which I had given him to carry along with
my tobacco-pouch—a small point, but one so
characteristic of the native), and the slight air
moving showed how the herd had winded us.
They had doubled in their tracks slightly to their
left, and were on our left flank as we came up.

We now took up the trail again, and for a short
time silence was not so absolutely essential.

We had scarcely moved forward when a fine
sambhar stag broke from a bamboo clump on our

141

Jungle By-Ways in India
right. He was within a few yards, and I just got
a snapshot view of him as he bounded away. He
need not have troubled, as we were in search of
lordlier game than he. The direction in which the
bison had proceeded soon took us out of the
heavy bamboo jungle in which we had put them up
so unwittingly ; and but for the swampiness of
the forest hereabouts, the going would have been
comparatively easy. My excitement grew as we
got out into the more open jungle, as one now
had some hopes of being able to see one’s game—
hide-and-seek with a herd of bison in thick forest
being a form of pastime a trifle trying even to the
best of nerves. Cold and wet and dirt (between
heavy mist, tropical showers, and miry bogs I was
by now in a sorry plight as regards appearance ;
but who thinks of that when the game is afoot
and when that game is bison ?) and the worries of
bugs and thorns, not to omit friend Anopheles, all
passed unnoticed now as we stole onwards, search-
ing carefully every portion of the forest. It must
have been well over an hour later when we again
came up with the herd. There was a slight fall in
the ground, the forest being of fairly open charac-
ter. A little distance ahead was one of those
partial openings or natural clearings, consisting of
heavy boggy soil covered with a crop of coarse
3-foot high grass and scattered clumps of bushes,
which were common to the forests of this part of

India. The bison were grazing near the far end of
142 *

Horns

this clearing, the forest beyond having much the
same character as that we were in. It could be
seen that the herd was very considerably scat-
tered, and the wary animals were evidently not
aware of our presence ; but caution was neverthe-
less imperative, as should the bison wind or see us
again they would certainly not give me another
chance. Moving forward with the utmost care I

A cow turned suddenly and fronted us.

strove to make out the big bull I had been told was
present in the herd, but search failed to show him
to me. Some outlying cows away to the right were
evidently beginning to get suspicious and uneasy ;
and one suddenly turned and fronted us, standing
stock still with ears thrown forward to catch the
slightest sound, head well up and nostrils agape
to cull the slightest taint in the breeze. It was
evident that she had not seen us; but that in-
stinct of self-preservation, so strong in the jungle
143

Jungle By-Ways in India
denizen and developed to a marvellous degree in
the great hulking brutes before me, evidently told
her that there was something unusual about, and
told me that I had no time to lose if I wished to
secure a reward for a heavy morning’s work.
Glancing again over the heads I could see from
my position, I singled out what appeared to be a
fair-sized bull and let fly. The bullet struck him
true, and he turned and made off in a line dead
away from us, entering the forest behind the clear-
ing almost at once. Instant confusion and turmoil
arose, and we dashed forward, half-right, as a
glance showed that the herd was closing up in that
direction, and as quick as the awful state of the
ground would permit, in the hope of making out
and getting a shot at the big bull. The herd had
all collected in the open clearing, and as we reached
the edge of the forest and dashed, or rather
stumbled, into the marshy boggy. opening, we
pulled up short in sheer amazement and wonder
at the most remarkable sight it has ever fallen to
my lot to witness. A hurried glance at Ana-
condu’s face informed me that he was equally
surprised, if not equally interested and enthu-
siastic.* For there, less than 50 yards away,
was the herd—a herd of some thirty bison—closed
up together in battle array, a serried, seething
mass of wildly tossing, brightly gleaming, yellow
horns and waving, uplifted tails. I have said that
the herd appeared to be closing up on the right
144

Horns

as we started to rush forward, but I had imagined
it was only due to their all taking the same direc-
tion in flight. Of course, to make progress at all
in such abominable going, one’s eyes had to be
fixed upon one’s feet, and therefore the move-
ments of the herd could not be seen during our
short forward rush. The point we had aimed for
and reached would, we had thought, take them
in a diagonal line away from us and across our
front. After closing up they had, however,
turned ; and the direction they appeared to be
taking, for they were moving forward in short,
sharp steps, evidently a very enraged herd, would
bring them diagonally just past our right front.
Did they swerve but slightly in their charge, for
there could be little doubt about their amiable
intentions, they would be over us. We were both
in the open, and there was no clump of bushes of
any size near us that the herd could not go right
through. I shall probably never see such a sight
again, nor will it be ever effaced from my memory.
The bison at all times in his native jungles is a
magnificent beast. With black, glossy, gleaming
back and flanks, clean snow-white stockings, and
massive head, what a picture he makes when,
turned to bay and really angry, he stands quiver-
ing with rage and fury before his wild onslaught
on to his foe. Such I had seen before, and for such
I was prepared. But to see the picture multiplied
by thirty! It was stupendous !
L 145

Jungle By-Ways in India

I had never been present at, but had often read
and also heard of authentic cases of, a herd closing
up en masse to get rid of the too pressing attentions
of a tiger ; but I was unaware of the existence of
a herd sporting enough to close up to charge a
man. The position and sight, although of the
nature to set the blood dancing through one’s
veins at the double, was too serious and urgent
for more than the most hasty study and re-
flection on points of natural history, especially
as there appeared every likelihood of the notes
never being recorded for the benefit of sportsmen.
The herd did not care about natural history ; but
it evidently did care, and care very much, about its
breakfast, and intended to dispute the possession
of that, to it, luscious, steamy bog-clearing. The
distance between us had already perceptibly
diminished, for they had not stopped their for-
ward movement ; but with loud snortings ‘had
edged closer and closer in their endeavour to see
exactly what the danger was before the leader
sounded the charge. Matters had now, therefore,
become more exciting than pleasant. Our only
chance was to turn them, but even at this juncture
I made one more last effort to pick out the big
bull (and Anacondu, I learnt afterwards, had tried
to do the same) ; but in that sea of tossing horns
it was impossible, and so, as there was little time
to waste, I picked out what I hoped would be a
bull and let drive at it. There was a waver, I

146

Horns

thought—I hoped—and as I fired my last barrel
the herd broke from a smart trot to a lumbering
gallop, swerved to their left, and went off through
the forest with that well-known crashing roar of
sound. Music sweeter than their retreating foot-
steps I have rarely heard, and though music was
not in the thoughts of my companions, for the two
other trackers emerged from somewhere behind,
solid content was expressed on their countenances.

The herd had crashed ‘off, but not all. Two
angry bellows proclaimed the fact that they had
left one of their number behind, and we at once
proceeded to move cautiously forward in the
direction from which the sounds emanated. A
few yards from where the herd had advanced in
battle array the forest commenced again, and
just within this we saw a bison down, struggling
in its death agony. Stealing forward, finger on
trigger, I crept to within fifteen paces. The beast,
with a short bellow, tried to rise, but it was too
far spent; a couple of groans and a deep sigh,
and its sporting spirit had departed to the happy
hunting-lands. After making sure the bison was
dead, we went up to it, and to my intense chagrin
I found that it was an old cow. At the time of
firing, in my attempt to turn the herd, I of course
knew that the chances were rather in favour of
my hitting a cow, but with the brutes showing
such a determined front and aggressiveness, the
risk had to be taken, if I ever wished to fire

147

Jungle By-Ways in India
another shot—the rules of sport and the forest
notwithstanding. The fates willed that I should
have bad luck. I turned away with a feeling of
annoyance, and commenced to look for the blood
of the bull I had first wounded. My disgust was
increased by the demeanour of the men who, to
my surprise, answered my inquiries as to where
the bull had stood when I fired by stating and
showing that they did not think I had hit it.
Hit or not, every inch of the ground was going
to be carefully searched ; to that I at once made
up my mind. Some distance from the cow we
came upon some blood. This they at once put
down as being the cow’s. I was too certain, how-
ever, about my shot to give in, and I took a
wide cast in the direction I believed the bull had
gone. After some search, only half-heartedly
joined in by the men, I found blood on
some tall grass. I pointed it out triumphantly
to Anacondu. The mixed look of pity and amuse-
ment on his face as he stooped to pick some of the
blades was good to see, and so was the rapid
transfiguration which resulted on his finding
blood, fresh blood, upon his fingers. All listless-
ness vanished now. With a wounded bull about
it was no time to skulk, and they all set to work
with a will. Cautiously and carefully we followed
the tracks, and soon we came upon a mass of
clotted, frothy blood which was sufficient proof
that the animal had met its death-blow, and that
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Horns

it was only a matter of time as to where it dropped.
For the next two hours we followed the trail,
the blood never ceasing, and over and over again
did the rifle come up to the shoulder at the
snap of a bamboo or twig. It is nerve-stretching
work walking up a wounded bison in thick jungle,
and the wounded bull took us through some of the
nastiest places we had seen that morning, pro-
gression being often only possible on hands and
knees. And those bamboos’ thorns! Every
bamboo clump, each patch of tall grass, big tree, or
thick bush might shelter the wounded and doubt-
less enraged brute, and the spirit which animated
this most sporting of herds led me to anticipate
a vicious charge should we be spotted as we
approached, and he be still capable of making it.
After some two and a half hours we reached a
small hill on which the forest was of a more open
nature. The blood trail took us over this, and
disappeared into what proved to be a large
stretch of bamboo jungle on the far side. After
satisfying myself that this was so, and sending a
couple of men to see that the bull was not in the
immediate vicinity, I had reluctantly to relinquish
further search. My time was up, my resting-place
for that night was the bungalow of a friend many
miles distant, and on the morrow I had to start
for the far north. It was a sad blow, as I wanted
to look upon that bull. There was little doubt that
its trophy, which from the size of the tracks
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Jungle By-Ways in India

there was every reason to even then think would
be a good one, would take its place amongst many
another hardly-earned one ; but I wished to see
it in its native wilds. However, there was no help
for it. An eight-mile tramp through swampy,
boggy forests, followed by another eight miles
on the pad of an elephant, lay between me and
my night’s halting-place, and there was no time
to lose if I wanted to get there before dark.
Leaving two men to continue the search—for
Anacondu was certain the bull would drop that
day, with the hopes of liberal baksheesh as a
reward for success—I started on one of the worst
eight miles it has ever been my lot to have to
accomplish. The excitement of the tracking being
now absent, there was nothing to keep one’s
attention off the vileness of the ground we covered,
and to add to the discomfort the rain of one of
the wettest months of the year commenced falling
with that steady persistence which means that
it has set in for good. But what are such minor
trifles and disagreeables in comparison to such a
day as I had had? Shall I ever see such a sight
as that closed-up herd again—those wildly
tossing, gleaming yellow horns and _ stiffened,
erect, waving tails. Shall I ever watch it deter-
minedly making up its mind to charge, and,
with blood wildly coursing through my veins,
shall I realize that that charge is meant for me ?
Yes, 1 shall see it—nay, I have seen it—but it
150

Horns

was in shadowland, in that land in which, locked
in the arms of Morpheus, one rehopes one’s
hopes and refights one’s battles o’er again.

MY TUSSLE WITH THE BULL BISON

It was in April, rg—, at B , in the Central
Provinces, that I had as near a thing with a bull
bison as most men would care for. I was shifting
camp that day, and in the grey dawn, saying good-
bye to W- as he lay on his cot in the verandah
(he had had some hard days, and was having a
morning in), I set off en route to B——. I
had decided overnight with my shikari to make
a detour on the way, as B was situated
outside the forest, and therefore had no shooting
possibilities (save, I believe, bear), and the road
thereto could by a little detour be made to take
one through some fine country, and I wanted a
good sambhar or chitul stag.

K , the bungalow I was leaving, was
situated in the midst of a very fine sal forest,
interspersed with considerable areas of a park-
like grass country which serpentined about
amongst the blocks of forest. It would perhaps
be difficult to find a finer or more sporting country
than the B Valley. It was alive with game!
Great herds of barasingha and chitul roamed
over the grass of the park-like areas, or rested in
the deep shade of the beautiful sal forest—at this
season a dream of vivid colour; clothed in its young,

15!

Jungle By-Ways in India
delicate, green, hot-weather foliage. Sambhar,
too, were plentiful in this favoured area, and tiger
and bison were far from being uncommon.

We looked into or marched through several of
these park-like pieces of grass country without
seeing anything worthy of a second glance.
Barasingha there were, but as the maximum
number of head allowed to be shot this year
had already been attained, they were ‘ closed,’
the consequence being that one was always
meeting really good heads. A few chitul with
small stags were also seen. Leaving the grass
areas, our route took us into a piece of sal forest
of some extent, the lower levels being a thick forest
of pure sal, whilst mixed bamboo and scrub
occupied the higher parts. We had been march-
ing through this some time when the shikari,
Kanig by name, suddenly stopped, and a stag
sambhar got up and trotted off. The head was
a fair one, and, changing the small bore for the
*500 Express, I went after him. He did not
appear to have been much startled, but we never
saw him again. A long track was out of the
question, as the forest was a huge one, and I had
determined to march straight into B sO as
to arrive there before the heat became oppressive.
L’homme propose !

Giving up the stag we continued down
through the forest, putting up some doe sambhar

on our way, until we saw the trees thinning in
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Horns

front, and another of the little grass areas, or
maidans, appeared before us. It looked quite a
small one from our position, the forest on either
side being only some 150 yards apart, whilst
its length was some 250 yards. As a matter of
fact, it opened out into a much larger area of
park-like country, but that I only discovered sub-
sequently: The events to be related here took
place in the arena of the small maidan.

We cautiously approached the edge of the
forest to see a few chitul does disappearing.
Save for these the little area at first appeared
empty. But what was that dark object some
80 yards away? ‘Bhalu (bear),’ said Kanig.
‘“Bhalu, Sahib. I looked. The maidan was
covered with the usual coarse tussocky grass,
about 3 feet high, peculiar to this part of India.
The high stuff was interspersed with spaces where
the grass was quite short—the areas having been
probably cut over by villagers or the local jungle
tribes. As the black object was in one of the
3-foot patches of grass, I had strong doubts about
it being a bear. Ramming a couple of cartridges
into my ‘500, we crept forward, and soon saw that
the black object was a bison. This had been my
first thought, as it was not the first time I have
stood up against one of these shy, timid, but
amongst the wiliest and cutest animals of the
jungle. We moved silently forward, the shikari,
after the nature of his tribe, whispering exhorta-

153

Jungle By-Ways in India
tions and instructions to shoot straight, to take
care to kill, etc. It is rare to get even an old
stager to keep cool when he has brought one up
to the more dangerous animals, unless he be a
man you have had for years and have been able
to properly drill. In this instance I had never
set eyes on my present man till five days pre-
viously. The tussocky grass admirably favoured
a stealthy stalk and near approach, and the bison
was apparently fully occupied in grazing on the
wet dank grass which grew along a narrow mud-
channel or drain, for it was little more than a
drain, which wound in a serpentine manner across
the maidan. The drain was edged, but not
hidden, by the tussocky grass. I was subse-
quently to make a very close acquaintance with
this drain, and to offer up a fervent thanksgiving
for its presence and the valuable help it afforded
me. We crept up to within about 30 yards,
and were then satisfied that the animal was a bull,
as indeed its solitariness led us to expect—that
and its gleaming black colour and great size.
However, as one occasionally finds old barren
cows leading a solitary life after the manner of the
old bulls, it was necessary to make sure before
firing. A few steps forward by the bison, who was
grazing towards us, took it into a little depression,
and I could only see the great black hump looming
above the grass as the ground rose slightly in
front of us. This necessitated my creeping still
154

ON THE EDGE OF THE BISON COUNTRY

Horns

closer. JI must state here that Kanig had my
small -303 and his own axe, a weapon carried by
all these local jungle tribes and from which they
never part, and I noticed as I left him that he had
laid the rifle on the ground, as also the axe, and was
crouching down with eyes fixed on the bison. His
lips moved, but I did not catch what he said. Nor
was it material. I crept silently up the little drain,
here widened out slightly, till I found myself
within eighteen paces of the bison; and as he
loomed suddenly upon me, with only the tussocky
grass between us, his enormous bulk took my
breath away. I had seen them before in the forest,
but never at such close quarters as this. How-
ever, there was no time for thought now. Raising
the rifle I took careful aim ; it would have been
impossible to miss the immense mass—it looked
like an elephant—and pulled the trigger. Click!
A missfire! And brand-new modified cordite
cartridges (my ‘500 is a Holland and Holland
black-powder rifle), purchased by myself the week
before at the Army and Navy in Calcutta!
Throwing open the breech and keeping one eye
on the bison, I rapidly extracted the useless
cartridge, crammed another in, closed the breech,
and hurriedly sighted again on my great target.
The ‘500 has an easy, a too easy, pull on the right
trigger, and for all my coolness the missfire must
have shaken me a little, for the first shot went too
high. I felt it, and rapidly fired a second, and then

155

Jungle By-Ways in India

I dropped, for it suddenly flashed across me, as
the bull went slowly forward seemingly unharmed
and not twenty paces away, that I had but one
cartridge left! I admit the carelessness, but the
whole thing had come upon one so suddenly.
Jitman, the orderly, with the cartridge-bag and
the tiffin man, was behind somewhere in the forest
when we started to creep up to the bison, and I had
thought in the early morning that four cartridges
were enough to carry on one’s own person on a
hot morning’s march when every little bit of extra
weight is apt to tell. I sank down on the edge of
the drain, extracted silently the two empty
cartridge-cases, and shoved in my last one and
softly closed the breech. It was a case of over-
confidence !

The bull was slightly to my left when I fired.
As I sank down at the edge of the little drain he
moved slowly forward, and I realized to my dis-
may that a few paces would bring him broadside
on to me within eighteen paces, and as luck would
have it, the patch of high tussocky grass: which I
had fired over ended a little to the left ; in front of
me only the short, coarse, cut stuff covered the
ground, , affording practically no concealment.
I got down as low as I could possibly manage,
consonant with maintaining a position from
which I could fire if the bull charged, and
muttered a prayer that he would walk past with-
out turning his head my way. He reached a

156

Horns

point exactly in front of me, and then halted
and looked about.

If it is ever possible for one’s spirit to look out
of one’s eyes, mine assuredly did so then. The
bull had but to turn full-face in my direction, and
he could not fail to spot me, as there was
nothing to conceal me in front. My only pro-
tection consisted in having at my back a wall of
the high tussocky grass which resembled in
colouring my khaki kit. But those 18 yards in
front! I remember thinking all this in a flash,
wondering whether I should have any chance
of stopping him with my last cartridge, wonder-
ing whether it: would missfire and whether the
vault to the left I had determined on should the
bull charge would be frustrated by the tussocky
masses. That bull must have stood there five
minutes, and the strain of those minutes was one
that I am unlikely to forget. For some reason
he had got it into his head that the shots had
come from the direction of Kanig, or rather
where he had been when I left him, for he sub-
sequently told me that he had wormed his way
to a large ant-hill, where he was to all intents
and purposes safe. It was in that direction
that the bull kept his gaze mostly directed—half
right. It only wanted another half right for his
glance to fall on me, and once or twice it came
perilously near to doing so, and I saw the eye
ablaze with a wild though curiously self-contained

157

Jungle By-Ways in India

fury, or so it seemed to me. I shall remember that
eye for a long time. So close was I that I
could see the blood trickling down over the hair
on the shoulder, and noted that the shot had
missed the heart. The other bullet had struck
him, but far too high up at the top of the shoulder.

Neither seemed to have affected the bull.
One felt as if one had been firing with a pea-
shooter at him, and I simply dared not risk that
last shot, though I had a beautiful bull’s-eye to
aim at. To have another missfire would mean
a charge if the bison heard the click. And, any
way, it would have left me unloaded, and so was
not to be thought of. There was no doubt that
the bull was puzzled as his eye continually roved
about in search, and how he failed to spot me
is a thing I shall never satisfactorily decide.
The one and only factor in my favour was the fact
that, cordite being smokeless, there was no cloud
of smoke hanging about such as always followed a
shot with the old black powder cartridge. I
have little doubt that this saved me, as this bull
would undoubtedly have charged the smoke
had there been any such to betray the direction
of the foe. All sorts of thoughts flitted through
my mind’ as I crouched there, though, curiously
enough, fear was almost absent. I knew that I
was keeping my head and keeping quite cool,
and that my brain was actively at work looking
out for any opportunity for ameliorating my

158 .

Horns

position which might arise. I was beginning
to get desperate when the bison moved slowly
forward for about twenty paces, and then turning
walked slowly away end on. The whole thing
was done in the slowest and most deliberate
and methodical manner, as if he had told us in
so many words that he intended stopping and
seeing this matter through. He went about 4o
yards, and my relief was so great that I had
already begun to think of offensive tactics with
my one cartridge. ‘One shot,’ I meditated ;
‘if I could but get at the shoulder, and then a
rapid bolt to the rear.’ Before, however, I
had time to come to any determination on the
point, I was fairly staggered once again. For
the bull turned, facing the direction from which
we had originally left the forest, and deliberately
sat down. From a mind eased of the tremendous
strain put upon it and thoughts of offensive
operations, I was thrown back into a state of
desperation once again. The habits of the bison
when wounded and enraged are so well known
as to be unknown, to speak in a paradox, for
one can never tell how they will act. Of this I
was aware, and here was one who apparently
combined all their vindictiveness when roused
with a deliberate calmness which was infinitely
disconcerting. As soon as he was comfortably
settled he kept his head slowly and constantly
on the move, carefully searching the grass from
159

Jungle By-Ways in India

side to side, but always on our side of the maidan.
He had chosen a piece of level ground as high as
any in the maidan, and clothed with the short
grass only. I could see the greater part of his
body and all his head from where I was, about
50-60 yards away (I think 50, as I paced it after-
wards), and I confess I became distinctly alarmed
at this move on the bull’s part, and as uncom-
fortable in my mind as I had been previously.
How was this matter going to end if he intended
to sit on the qui vive through the long hot hours
of the day; and such a thing had been done by
bison before. What I could not understand then,
and cannot still, even with the light of subsequent
events to guide me, is why that bull chose that
position and sat down. It commanded the whole
arena, I admit, and he may have been harder hit
than I thought; but if so, he didn’t show it in
his movements. In fact, had I not seen the
wounds I should have begun to think I had missed
him. The actions of that bull still remain to me
most mysterious, and can only be explained by
the fact that he could not make up his mind
where or who to go for. I was thus rapidly
pondering the situation, when suddenly I was
startled by a rush on my right as if some small
animal was bolting through the grass. I could of
course see nothing from my lowly position, nor
I believe did the bison, though his head came
round like a rocket. The rush was in the long
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Horns

grass, and I at once guessed the reason. The
shikari Kanig was bolting for the forest and
safety, and though I was incensed I could not be
angry, because of course he was not aware of my
predicament, and my conduct to him must have
appeared absolutely inexplicable. His rush for
safety made matters ten times worse for me
though, as it gave the whole position away, or
very nearly so. I had cause to bless the fact that
I had left him several yards away on my right.
The bull now concentrated the whole of his
attention to this part of the grass, and I leant
back as far as possible, with one leg tucked under
me in such a position that in a very short time
I suffered excruciating agony from it, and—
watched the bull. There was nothing else left
for me to do. I shall probably remember those
minutes as long as I live! When the bison had
been 18 yards away I realized that if he saw me
matters would reach a climax at once. Now,
with him 50 yards away, I felt that the cards were
still all in his favour and the strain all on mine.
Suddenly, away to the right, on the edge of the
forest, I heard the sharp snap of a dead bamboo.
Round went the bull’s head, and his gaze was
riveted on the spot. Could this be a diversion,
I thought, on the part of the other men! But
it was not repeated. They were too frightened
themselves. It had helped, however, as the bull
had now two places to watch. My eye at this
M 161

Jungle By-Ways in India

moment caught the glisten of a metal cartridge-
case a yard or more away in front. I looked ; it
was the missfire. I thought I might as well
have it in my left barrel in case of emergencies,
as there was the off-chance that it might be the
striker of the rifle, and not the cartridge, that
was at fault. The difficulty was to get it
without attracting the bull’s attention, but
this was successfully accomplished. As_ the
minutes crawled on the strain grew greater, and
I determined at last that I could not wait there
any longer. The way at the back of me was, I
knew, blocked. It consisted entirely of the long
tussocky grass ; and though a dive into it would
at once hide me, the noise I should make would
immediately bring the bison down upon me—
the noise and the waving grass-heads. No, there
was no safety there. My only chance, I could see,
was to slither down into the drain, dash along
this as quickly as possible, and then be guided
by circumstances, and anything in the shape
of a shelter that I might be lucky to come across.
Of course, I didn’t like it. No one would! But
anything was better than the strain, and my
stopping where I was appeared to be becoming
more and more dangerous the longer I prolonged
it. This plan I put into operation. Waiting till
the bull faced the forest where the bamboo
had snapped, I slipped slowly down on my
back the couple of feet into the drain, keeping

162 ®

Horns

my eye on the bull the while, which was only ,
too easy, as there was no bank on the opposite
side, only a shelving slope. As soon as in the
drain, I turned over slowly, and, half rising,
I took my eye from the bull and ran to the left,
down that winding drain for some 20 yards or
so with my heart in my mouth and the cold
sweat pouring down me. I seemed to feel,
rather than see, the bull spring to his feet; and,
leaving the drain, I swept to the left, stumbling
through the long grass and making for a friendly
ant-hill I saw about 30 yards away. One glance
from its friendly shelter showed the bull ad-
vancing, and having seen, as I swung round the
mound, my cartridge man on the edge of the forest
some 50 yards away, I aimed and fired that
last cartridge at the bull with no further hesita-
tion. The shot went home and turned him. To
about face, rush to my man and get cartridges
was the work of a few seconds, and again ap-
proaching the bison, I, after a bad and palpable
miss (for I was a bit jumpy, I fancy), got two
more bullets home ; at least, I felt certain they
were hits. And yet that bull stood up and still
advanced towards us. But his movements got
slower and slower, and after a few paces he sat
down but a little to the right of where he had
formerly stood so close to me earlier in the pro-
ceedings. Save for his slower movement and the

fact that he had again sat down, he did not,
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Jungle By-Ways in India
however, appear to be much the worse. I could
not understand it. ‘But,’ I thought, ‘it is
easily finished now.’ Misfortune and cartridges
were, however, to be my portion to-day. I now
found that Jitman had only brought out one
packet of ‘500, ten only! Of these but three
remained, and with the possibilities of missfires
before me, I could not even count on having
three.

My reflections on cartridge dealers and missfires
would not bear repeating. I could not, how-
ever, wish for them a worse fate than the ex-
perience I had been through. A close watch on
the bull made it obvious that he was hard hit, but
though he did not get up he maintained his close
watch on us. ‘The small-bore,’ I thought, and
whispered to Jitman to go and get it from Kanig
who was behind a neighbouring tree. To my rage
and disgust he came back without the rifle. In
his flight Kanig had carried nothing, apparently.
The rifle, his axe, and cloth were all lying in the
drain, and must be now within two or three yards
of where the bull was sitting. It was annoying.
There was nothing for it but to husband the
cartridges left me, and wait on the future. Having
got out of two tight places, I felt fairly confident
now (for the first time) of bagging the bison. We
watched him for some ten minutes or so, and
’ once his head dropped and he lay over side-
ways. ‘Why, he’s dead or dying!’ I said. But I

164 *

Horns

had hardly spoken before up came his head round
in our direction, and he got on his feet and again
that slow walk towards us. But surely now there
was a difference! He seemed to sway a little, and
then to almost totter as he again turned slowly
to face the forest and again sat down. It was then
that I began to suspect that one of the later shots
had broken a leg, and this subsequently proved to
be the case. It accounted for his not charging
home when I retreated down the drain, and
stopped him with the last cartridge. We did not
know this then, however, and we had not done
with the bull. As we watched he seemed to droop,
and we felt certain that he was ours; but three
times he got up and walked a few steps towards
us before sitting down again, and always that un-
wearying, steady gaze. Never was man more
angry. With the small-bore I could have settled
the matter in a few seconds. With the bull doing
sentry-go over that much-wanted rifle, and but
three cartridges left for the other, I hardly knew
what to do. Meanwhile the minutes dragged on,
and still we were not quite sure as to whether we
were the watched or the watchers, the hunted or
the hunters! I could stand it no longer. The
bull at his last move had sat down nearer us, but
behind a tussocky mass of grass with an ant-hill
rising out of it, so that only his hump and head
were visible. I determined to make for a solitary

tree to my right front, from which I could get a
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Jungle By-Ways in India
shot at about 4o yards, and see if I could not
settle the matter. I told the men to stay where
they were, and started off. As I cautiously made
my way through the grass tussocks with my eye
on the bull, I slipped, and in the stumble forward
took my eye off the bison to look at my feet.
I halted, holding my breath. No sound from the
bull, and I looked round. Yes, there he was, or
rather the great black hump. Another 30-40
yards and suddenly I saw the bison to my left,
and much nearer than I had thought he was. I
dropped down, and took a survey of the position.
The black hump I had been watching so care-
fully was an outcrop of black rock, having much
the shape of the hump of the bull. I remembered
now having noticed it whilst I lay trying to flatten
myself in the grass at an earlier trying period of
that morning. The bull had not seen me, and I
crawled snakewise to the tree and got behind it.
Yes, the bison was certainly very sick ; but his
unwearying gaze was still fixed on our side of the
maidan, and his ears were still thrown forward.
He still looked as if he had a charge in him. I
glanced back to see how far the forest was, and
what line of retreat I should take, and then turned
and slowly raised the rifle. I brought it down
again with a muttered exclamation. The bull had
suddenly rolled over on his side, or so I imagined,
for as I was sighting on him, his head fell side-

ways and the body disappeared. I was too sur-
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Horns

prised for words. At one instant apparently full
of life and wickedness, and next instant dead or,
any way, disappeared, and that meant down. I
could see nothing of him from where I was, and
circumspection was still necessary with this bull,
for whom I had the greatest respect and the best
of reasons for mistrusting. Signalling to the men
that he was down, I commenced a wide circuit, so
as to approach the bison from the opposite side
of the maidan. It was not till we had got to a
point almost opposite to the spot I had last fired
from that anything was visible, and then I
suddenly saw the bison. He was lying on his side
with his head stretched out, and appeared quite
dead. It was necessary to make perfectly sure
before approaching too close, and as I was un-
willing to use one of the last remaining cartridges
of the heavy rifle, I asked the men whether one of
them would now go and creep quietly up at the
back and get the other rifle whilst I covered the
bull in front. Kanig flatly refused to go. His
remembrance of his altogether too close proximity
already once that morning was enough for him.
Jitman volunteered to go, and he was soon back
with the rifle. I put a bullet into the body with
no visible result, and we then slowly advanced,
the men throwing lumps of earth and stones at
the body—a proceeding made necessary by the
nasty habit these animals have of shamming
death and then jumping up and charging with
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Jungle By-Ways in India

their last breath. When a few rocks and lumps
of earth had rebounded off the immense side, I
went up and stood over the bull and reflected.
I had seen him too close, and in such a manner
as to stamp him indelibly on my brain, to make
a further inspection of him necessary for me.
He was a fine bull, the head not as big as I had
hoped. But what a gallant spirit! Unvan-
quished to the end. ‘And of the two of us,’ I
thought to myself, ‘I think you have come out
of it in the best light.’ I had seen bulls act in
various ways before when attacked, but never
after the fashion of this one. And had I known
the spirit that was in him I should have ap-
proached him in a very different fashion, I fancy ;
and certainly with a pocket full of cartridges. I
learnt a lesson that morning which is unlikely to
be soon forgotten.

So ended the grandest fight and the most ex-
citing hour I have passed in India. For the fight
had lasted an hour, and stubborn to the last the
bull’s gallant spirit winged its way to the Happy
Hunting Grounds.

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 cartridges— Charmed life of a
black buck.

SHOOTING TIPS

Y the way, it is always well to remember
that when you are using a heavy rifle,
like an 8-bore firing a heavy charge
(say ten drams), you should only cock

one hammer at a time, as the terrific jar often
sends off the second barrel if you have both cocked
at once.

I was out after bison one day with a Io-bore
Paradox (Holland and Holland), and had loaded
my cartridges myself with six drams apiece.
In the early morning we came upon an old bull,
and without thought I naturally cocked both
hammers and fired the right barrel, being quite

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Jungle By-Ways in India
unaware of the playful possibilities of the rifle
when in this condition. The second barrel jarred
off, and I was thrown backwards by the recoil,
being in a kneeling position at the time. As it
happened, I subsequently found that both bullets
had struck him, the second high up. I did not
know that then, however, being so wholly taken
by surprise at being shot head over heels back-
wards so suddenly. As I gathered myself up I
saw the bison coming in my direction. Luckily
there was a small nullah with an eight-foot drop
between us, and I did not wait just then to
ruminate over that second barrel, though I
remember feeling certain that I had not touched
the second trigger. The bison was very hard hit,
and did not go 100 yards before dropping to a
third bullet.

That was some time ago. Quite recently,
however, another instance of the kind came to
my notice. I had spent three days with a man
in a glorious shooting-country, the same country
in which I had the tussle with the bull I have
described already. A day or two after we parted
I had a note from him, saying that he had bagged
a bison, his great ambition.

‘But,’ he wrote, ‘I had forgotten the tip about
cocking both barrels of the 8-bore at the same
time.’

As can be understood, during the day or two we
had spent together in the pretty forest rest-house,

170

Horns

we had talked ‘bison’ each night over dinner
and the post-prandial smoke, as it was one of the
objects of his trip to bag one. I had related
several experiences of my own and friends on
stalking these animals on foot. How that it
often meant a terrible long day’s work in the
cruel hot sun of the hot weather, starting too at
crow’s dawn, and that more often than not
one only came up with one’s quarry late in the
afternoon, probably nearly hidden in a bamboo
brake. That one often lost one’s bison by striving
to circle about to get a shoulder-shot, which in
my and other men’s experience so often ended
in the bison spotting one and bolting, giving
either a very difficult shot or none at all. It
had also to be borne in mind that after many
hours’ tramp in the hot-weather Indian sun, even
the hardest and fittest of us would be in a droopy
condition. Yarns on end could be told of men
who, when brought up to their bison late in the
afternoon, were so done that they could scarce
lift the rifle steadily on their quarry, and often
through sheer lassitude got an attack of ‘jerks’
and missed.

This, and the fact that once the sun has got
up to any height, one so often finds one’s bison
in the midst of some dense bamboo brake filling
the bottom of a little valley, or the riverain-terraces
of a nullah through which a stream tinkles and

purls in miniature waterfalls, makes it extremely
171

Jungle By-Ways in India

desirable that one should be armed with a heavy
rifle. The option is often given you of firing (and
this after a long hard stalk, mind) at a small black
patch—a part of the animal, but what part it is
often almost impossible to decide, or of not firing at
all. Now it is cruel to take this chance of wound-
ing the animal with a light rifle; for there is
no certainty of bagging him under those con-
ditions, and a lightly or even badly wounded
bison will go miles. If, however, you are pro-
vided with an 8-bore, or a *400-"450, or ‘500
cordite rifle, you may take a sight on the part
you see in the almost perfect assurance that
you will bag the beast, as the shock to the system
from these rifles, provided you hit him in the body,
is so great that he rarely gets very far. It is
true that you have to look out for a charge,
for if not hit in a vital spot the brute will still
have plenty in him to make things lively enough
for you.

My friend, whilst climbing up after his bison
into the hills, for the animal had left the maidan
grass areas at dawn, had remembered our
conversations, and they flashed through his
mind as he topped the bank and spotted his
quarry. Without further ado he blazed into him
with the right barrel of the 8-bore.

“I was knocked head over heels’ (he is a fairly
big, heavy man) ‘down the bank, both barrels
(twenty drams) having gone off together. The

172

HE SHOOK HIS HEAD AT ME AND ROLLED OVER DEAD

HEAD OF NILGAI OR BLUE BULL

Horns

poor beast could not do much with four ounces
of lead inside him. When I had picked myself
up and crawled back over the bank, he turned
round when he saw me, shook his head at me,
and rolled over dead. My shoulder got a most
awful jar. I shall now remember the tip about
cocking the second trigger.’

It was a good example this, by the way, of the
different ways of killing really heavy game.
Shortly before I had had an hour’s excitement with
my bull, an older, heavier, and tougher customer
it is true, before I killed him, and might well
have lost him or been bagged myself. I had
only a 500 Holland and Holland modified cordite
with me, and a light -303 sporting Lee-Metford !
He who arms himself with a really powerful
weapon when in pursuit of these big animals will
save himself great weariness and travail of the
flesh and spirit.

Remember, one’s armoury must be all thought
out and provided for before the start. It is when
one has reached one’s shooting-grounds and dis-
covers that one has fallen into a real soft thing
in the way of shikar country that one at once
feels, and feels most sorely, any weak spots in
one’s battery, for it is too late to remedy any
defect then. And what golden chances may be
missed !

I remember much bitterness of spirit on one
occasion, and that over quite small game. This

173

Jungle By-Ways in India
arose from the unwitting use of old bad
cartridges.

I had never seen black buck, not having
been stationed in black-buck country. Whatever
the animal may be, I suppose the sportsman
is always keen when first introduced to it.
I remember being out once with a man who
had never seen or shot a kakar. I have known
them intimately for years and, save for the pot,
would never dream of raising a rifle to them.
This man spent several trying days after them !
And he was in a tiger, bison, and barasingha
country !

I was in the same position with black buck
on the occasion I am alluding to, and, modestly,
I only wanted two good heads.

On no less than four occasions I found myself,
after an arduous stalk, in front of a good buck,
within easy range. A clean miss, followed by a
second, was the result. It was not till the last
occasion that I fully realized what was the matter.
I had four shots at the buck. It was in the
gloaming. The first hit the ground within 30
yards of myself; the buck was about 40 yards
away. The next three went off with a shrill whirr
like a rocket, curving after the fashion of a shell
over the buck. It was ludicrous. I, the firer,
could hear the scream of the bullet!

I wonder if the Afridis have yet discovered
that cordite does not keep for ever. One feels

174 ‘

Horns

peculiarly helpless when one has realized that
one’s cartridges are useless. I traced out the
history of mine. They must have been just nine
(perhaps ten) years old—two old packets which
had got amongst my fresh ones.

/ Af é qi eA Ny Hf «™ ge
VER Oe
ft

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 villa-
gers near your shooting-grounds—A morning’s stalk— Appearance
of nilgai tracks—Death of the bull.

BLACK BUCK

HOSE who have watched these little
antelopes in their homes on the great
plains of India will readily award the
palm for lightness, beauty, and grace to

the black buck amongst all the popularly so-
called deer tribe; though, of course, the black
176 '

Horns

buck is an antelope and not a deer, as its horns
are hollow and not solid and they are not shed
annually.

Beautifully and wonderfully gracefully made
are these airy little creatures ; and it is, I think,
almost one of the greatest privileges accorded to
the jungle lover to watch for the first time these
little antelope, either at play or when in sudden
alarm they go bounding off across country. Their
movements may be best explained to those who
have not seen this wonderful sight by the simile
that they appear to move on mechanically per-
fect steel springs ; for so it appears when one’s
astounded eyes endeavour to take in and estimate
the distance and height of those wonderful leaps,
which they take with such consummate ease and
light, airy grace.

Beautiful, most beautiful, and dainty amongst
all the Creator’s creatures are these little beings.

Old bucks can be distinguished by their almost
black colour, the belly being white, and by their
long black spiral horns. The closeness of the
spiral and divergence of the two horns vary. 302
inches is supposed to be a record head. A 24
inch would now be considered very good and any-
thing over 18 inch shootable. The height at the
shoulder is 2 feet 8 inches and weight 85 lbs.
Horned females are occasionally to be found.

One evening in the hot weather I sat down and
watched a herd, consisting of a youngish buck,

N 177

Jungle By-Ways in India

with a fair head, and a few does. If you have
never done this you will often find it a most
amusing, if not instructive, proceeding. One
thing I learnt that evening—to wit, that the
gentler sex, be she a gentle and fair maiden, or
a timorous antelope or deer, have all received and
absorbed the same sort of instruction from their
foremothers—Eve and company.

This evening the gay young spark of a buck
commenced a kind of ‘chase me’ with one of the
more beautiful young does of his harem. They
were just like two children at play. The doe
would run for a time in small circles, whose
radii got shorter and shorter, the buck following
exactly in her tracks. Suddenly, when there was
scarce space to turn in, the doe would shoot away,
and, with the craftiness of her wily sex, gradually
draw the buck onward and onward, just ever
keeping out of his reach in the most elusive
manner, until she had taken him to some distance
from the rest of the herd and had him all to herself.

Many times have I watched this manceuvre with
secret delight. It is really as good as play, or far
better. I stole a glance at the other does of the
harem. Oh, no! they were taking no notice of
the performance. Of course not! And yet I
could see the hair bristling with indignation on
the neck and shoulders and along the dorsal
ridge of that old matron over there, who is per-
fectly aware of the giddy goings-on of her Lord

178 ‘

Horns

and Master. And those two small, delicate, pretty
young maidens hard by, into whose shapely long
ears the handsome buck has often breathed sweet
nothings on soft warm moonlight nights, when
the dew lay like pearls on leaf and stem, and the
soft breeze sighed and whispered through the
perfumed grass. What think they? Osten-

S Fae 3
ys Bim Biss ; .
ep ee ee WO) foe
A black buck and doe at]play.

tatiously they have turned their backs on the
performance, and are apparently grazing in dual
happiness and peace. But if ever jealousy,
green-eyed jealousy, was writ in large characters
on a face and in an attitude, it was depicted as
large as life in the eyes and figures of those young
does.

“The giddy old ruffian,’ I thought. ‘What a
time he’ll have of it when next the old matron
gets near him!’ And the two jealous maidens!

179

Jungle By-Ways in India
But I have little doubt that he has long ago taken
their measure, and a little preening of his best
feathers before them and a little soft sawder will
bring them into line all right !

These beautiful little antelope are by no means
naturally wary. In fact, they soon become very
tame if left alone and undisturbed by the rifle.
When come across in areas where there is a fair
amount of scrub jungle into which they can
retire easily, and when not shot at incessantly in
an open country, it is not difficult to get near
them to study their wonderful grace and agility and
their happylittle ways—a pursuit which to mymind
is far more fascinating than shooting them down.

If, however, much shot at in the open culti-
vated tracts which form their chief abode, they
become very wild, and stalking them becomes a
difficult matter, if not a high art.

Of course, recourse can always be had to a
pair of bullocks, or a country-cart drawn by
bullocks. The antelope are so used to seeing the
villagers engaged in the fields with their plough
oxen, or driving them across the open maidan to
the village back from work, to seeing the village
cattle going out from the village in the morning
and returning at night, and to the appearance of
bullock-carts going up and down the main and
feeder roads, that they take no notice of them.

It is therefore easy to get near a herd by
keeping to the lee-side of a pair of bullocks

180 id

Horns

driven towards it, or by approaching the herd in
a bullock-cart.

I can’t say that these methods particularly
recommend themselves to me.

The real game begins when one tries to stalk
a wary herd across the open plain.

Not long ago I took on a stalk of this nature.
It was on a hot April morning in the Central
Provinces, and the sun was already beginning
to get unpleasantly warm when I set out on the
flat of my stomach across the open grassy plain,
with no prospect in front of me of being able to
make use of a helpful termite heap or anything
in the shape of a small bush or large tussock of
grass to shield me from the all too keen and
persistent gaze of the herd. The position resolved
itself into just a slow, tortuous crawl on my
stomach—and nothing else for it. I had to go
from 350 to 400 yards, and it took me three-
quarters of an hour. By the end of this period
I was very fagged, very hot and wet, extremely
aching about the shoulder-blades, and had got
to within 70 yards of the nearest doe, and I did
not dare squirm along another foot. And I
missed the buck after all! I draw a veil over the
things I remembered to mention in the heat of my
disappointment as the buck went off in a series
of most disconcerting leaps and bounds, for the
bullet had whizzed very close to him, and he was

frightened.
181

Jungle By-Ways in India
I fancy we all remember to say a few words
after a difficult stalk followed by a miss!
Although black buck really live in the open
country, i.e. in the great cultivated tracts of the
country, they are occasionally to be found in
outlying patches of forest in the neighbourhood
of dense forest tracts.
I have noticed in Northern India that they are
extremely shy of elephants, and will always clear

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psy wH Gh C7 um Dia ro iat >)
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I missed the buck after all.

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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.

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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.

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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

(i R

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‘ | EM.

G \ h nn \

SSS,
SS.
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

*
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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

248 :

Pelts

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

249

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.

250 *

Pelts

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

251

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
252

Pelts

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

253

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.

254 y

Pelts

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

255

Jungle By-Ways in India
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
256 «

Pelts

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

s 257

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
258 .

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.

260

Pelts

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

261

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

262 *

Pelts

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,

263

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

264 >

Pelts

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
265

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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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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Pelts

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

279 ~

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

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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
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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
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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

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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

283

©

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

284 *

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-

287

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.

\
va

\
Kh

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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