PHEASANT SHOOTING IN NORTHERN INDIA. 803 



belter terms with them. However, in steppin^r forward, one foot sinks 

 into n hole, thjit was evidently intended for a young deodar, but not 

 occupied. 1 raise myself on my knee and give the lust bird a paiting 

 shot. He responds, crashing into a dense brake of wild raspberry and 

 other bushes. The man above now shouts that a wounded bird has 

 run past him, so 1 scramble up to where he is, getting severely 

 sci"atche<l in the process. I put the bitch on the line, but she dashes 

 over a ridge and 1 again hear her voice and the noise of wings 

 faintly in the distance ; but nothing comes our way, so I whistle her 

 back, scramble a hundred yards higher up than where the bird was 

 last seen, and wave her into a thick tangle of bushes, where she 

 very shortly strikes the right line, and after a tremendous hunt 

 I twice see the bird that has evidently got the outer end of its 

 wing broken — ^.jump into the air to escape the dog. However, she at 

 last catches him, and returns gleefully, as she loves catching a runner 

 better tlian anything ; she places him at my feet and without a second's 

 hesitation, he is up and off again ; so there follows another chase 

 which ends sooner than the last, and this time I take good care to 

 take the bird from 1 er mouth. 



It is no goad looking for any of the birds that come this way now, 

 so we retrace our steps, picking up the bird which had lodged in the 

 brambles. 



A little later on rounding a spur, a deep densely wooded nullah 

 meets our view, the spaniel plunges into the undergrowth, and shortly 

 after there is a very excited, prolonged yapping, very different to the 

 short note she gives when after a pheasant. 1, hoping it may be kar- 

 ker, Fcnimble into a conmianding position, and the next second 20 

 yards below me a male karker bounds into view. I aim well forward 

 and fire, and shortly after hear a gurgling grunt, which tells me the 

 shots have reached their mark. My man arrives on the scene before 

 J do, and '' halluls " the pretty little brown fellow. We then hang 

 him up in a tree to be fetched later on and proceed. The sun is 

 now rapidly sinking tc.wards the summits of a distant range, so we 

 hurry on a bit, and 1, thinking we shall not find anything else now 

 as this part is very much frequented by natives, unload my gun and 

 hand it to my attendant ; but just belore emerging on to the main 

 road where I expect to find my pony, the spaniel makes a sudden rush 

 up the khud, and two young kalijs rise ; one sits in a thick tree voci- 



