THE INDIAN HI80N. 299 



had ffone on with the herd and left the calf concealed behind. It was 

 sitting with its head and neck stretched out close to the ground, 

 trying to make itself as invisible as possible. I succeeded in taking 

 a photo, of it at a distance of 3 yards : all the time I was fixing the 

 camera, it kept its eyes on me. On my moving the camera to 

 take a second picture from another position, it got up and bolted, 

 and seemed to be a fortnight old. It was of a light yellow colour, 

 and exactly the same colour as a calf of the American bison I saw 

 in the London Zoological Gardens last year, Avhieh the keeper told 

 me was then a fortnight old. I then continued tracking the herd, 

 and saw the calf again two or three times until I passed it in some 

 long grass. Whether by accident or instinct, it followed the tracks of 

 the herd. The end of it was that the herd after a circuit of a 

 couple of miles returned to the place where the calf had been left 

 sitting, but J did not fire at them, as there was no good bull. Bison 

 never leave the jungle, and are impatient of civilization. They do not 

 mind the few huts dignified by the name of villages that are to be 

 found in the forests. I have often found their tracks within half a 

 mile of such spots; they are naturally timid and flee from the sight 

 of man. In my opinion they are not at all d;mgerous game. The 

 ground one attacks them on is well wooded and affords every faci- 

 lity to the hunter for dodging them, should they charge. This, 

 however, they seldom do. I have only been charged myself thrice : 

 once by an old solitary bull that I had wounded the day before, 

 once by a bull in a herd that was so badly hit he had no other 

 means of escape, and I was close on him, and once by a cow with 

 a young calf. The last two instances ought not to count, for 

 " The smallest worm will turn being trodden on, 

 And doves will peck in safeguard of their brood." 

 My brother was charged by the first bull he ever saw. It tossed 

 his shikari, the point of the horn scratched the skin on the inside 

 of the thigh. The man fortunately fell into the bottom of a 

 nullah ; the bull did not go on, but stopped looking about for his 

 adversary, and was then killed. The shikari, though not hurt, said he 

 had had enough of bison-shooting and would go home. The natives 

 show considerable fear of bison, and give them a worse character 

 than they deserve. An old bull I once shot I was told had 

 killed a native a short time before. When a bison charges, he 

 commences by running at you with his head well up, and nose in 

 the air, and only tucks his head down when a few yards off. At least. 



