410 Colonel Syxxs’s Description of the - 
Nilagiris, though only in the western parts. I myself was followed, while 
travelling between the Pailira river and Naddibatt, a distance of eight or nine 
miles, by a pack of them, and had I not repeatedly fired off my pistols they 
would certainly have carried away three or four terriers and Spanish dogs that 
were following me at the time. Two or three times I succeeded in getting 
young ones, but I did not keep them longer than three or four weeks, they 
were so very wild as well as shy. It was only at night that they would eat, 
and then most voraciously. In the formation of their claws there was a 
difference from that of the wolf or shakal, resembling more the feline than 
the canine species, and this will account for the circumstance of these dogs 
always attacking and tearing out the eyes of their prey.” 
(Signed) T. H. Baer. 
The Colsun described by Colonel Syxes is also common in the Hyderabad 
territory, and in most parts of the Deccan, also along the whole extent of 
the woody country in the districts of Ellar and Rajamahendri, and in part 
of Ganjam, on the eastern or Coromandel coast. 
In the interior of the Deccan, they have been frequently seen by sporting 
gentlemen, but nearer the eastern coast they are generally shy. The 
Shicdris call it, in Hindustani, Jangali Cutta; and in Telugu, Adavi 
Cucca, both meaning the Wild Dog. ‘They frequently hunt in packs, and 
are considered tolerably fleet. To one of these hunts I was once indebted 
for a haunch of venison, which proved, after the hard run the animal had 
had, most excellent eating. Early one morning, during a military tour in 
the Ganjam district, my attention was suddenly attracted by a loud halloo- 
ing and shouting amongst the followers, a short distance in the rear. Con- 
ceiving they were attacked by robbers, the strip of country on the left 
being rather wild, I galloped back, and rejoined them just in time to 
see the termination of one of these hunts. A fine buck antelope was 
observed bounding through an extensive, low, scattered jungle, and clumps 
of wild myrtle bushes, closely pursued by ten or twelve of these Wild Dogs. 
He was so hard pressed by them, that just as I came up, he dashed 
into a small tank near the road side, but it being shallow, with a muddy 
bottom, he plunged and could make no progress, and would, in that situa- 
tion, soon have fallen an easy prey to the pack, had they not been alarmed 
and frightened away by the noise and shouting of the camp followers. 
