SPORT IN THE JUNGLES OF N. INDIA 159 



Papilios, Vanessas, and many others which are to be com- 

 monly found on the borders of the forest in this part of 

 India. Beetles droned past, chiefly dung beetles, and rose 

 chafers and cockchafers, though a brilliant buprestis or two 

 is to be found in these forests. 



Bees and wasps were legion, as were many of the forms of 

 small bugs and beetles which form so large a proportion 

 in numbers of the animal world of the Indian forests. 



Down in the river-bed, but a short distance from my stand, 

 I saw a number of irregularly spaced circular holes in the 

 sand, cone-shaped or terminating in a point at the bottom, 

 the sides consisting of shelving sand. Well known to me were 

 these as the abode of the curious insect known as the ant 

 lion. The mature insect is a harmless winged fly with four 

 large, colourless, net-veined wings with black splotches on 

 them. It is from the grub that the insect gets its carnivor- 

 ous name. This grub is a curious-shaped object, consisting 

 of a swollen body and small head, the mouth being furnished 

 with an enormous pair of shear-like jaws. The grub makes 

 the orifice in the sand and then buries himself at the bottom 

 leaving only his black jaws protruding from the sand. An 

 insect, moving along the surface of the sand above, reaches 

 the edge of the hole before he is aware it is there and 

 tumbles down the shelving sand* to the bottom where 

 he is immediately seized 

 in the large jaws of the .. .....jT , ,■ -.r /, 



grab and devoured. I ^:^i'M^l-y^^-'^^ ■ 

 had counted as many as '-^', V' . j-lii -'' '" 

 ten insects which had gone 

 to their fate at the bottom 

 of the holes I was watch- 

 ing, when I felt a touch 

 on the arm and, looking 

 up, started violently. \''. {f'^^'/^lM'i^/// 



I thought I must be /z'.^j^J-^^ ^^'^ _^ 



dreaming. There in front ''^-1 -. '' Zj''-^M^^"M'^ii^ 



of me were three chita/ 



stags, one of large size, or so it appeared to me. I had 

 heard no sound and for some seconds I gaped at them 

 mechanically without reahzing that what I had come out 

 for stood before me. 



The deer were crossing the ravine at a sharp walk, but 

 were in no way alarmed. Suddenly one stopped and 



