ANTELOPE. 475 
twice seen a wounded antelope pursued by greyhounds drop suddenly 
into a small ravine, and lie close to the ground, allowing the dogs 
to pass over it without noticing, and hurry forward.”- (‘Mamm. of 
India,’ p. 278.) 
I have myself experienced some curious instances of the hiding 
propensities spoken of by Sir Walter Elliot and Dr. Jerdon. In my 
book on Seonee I have given a case of a wounded buck which I rode 
down to the brink of a river, when he suddenly disappeared. ‘The 
country was open, and I was so close behind him that it seemed 
impossible for him to have got out of sight in so short a space of time ; 
but I looked right and left without seeing a trace of him, and, hailing 
some fishermen on the opposite bank, found that they had not seen him 
cross. Finally my eye lighted on what seemed to be a couple of sticks 
projecting from a bed of rushes some four or five feet from the bank. 
Here was my friend submerged to the tip of his nose, with nothing but 
the tell-tale horns sticking out. 
This antelope attaches itself to localities, and after being driven away 
for miles will return to its old place. The first buck I ever shot I 
recovered, after having driven him away for some distance and 
wounded him, in the very spot I first found him; and the following 
extract from my journals will show how tenaciously they cling some- 
times to favourite places :— 
“«T was out on the boundary between Khapa and Belgaon, and came 
across a particularly fine old buck, with very wide-spreading horns ; so 
peculiar were they that I could have sworn to the head amongst a 
thousand. He was too far for a safe shot when I first saw him, but I 
could not resist the chance of a snap at him, and tried it, but missed; 
and I left the place. My work led me again soon after to Belgaon 
itself, and whilst I was in camp there I found my friend again; but he 
was very wary ; for three days I hunted him about, but could not get a 
shot. At last I got my chance; it was on the morning of the day I 
left Belgaon, I rode round by the boundary, when up jumped my 
friend from a bed of rushes, and took off across country. I followed 
him cautiously, and found him again with some does about two miles 
off. A man was ploughing in the field close by ; so, hailing him, | got 
his bullocks and drove them carefully up past the does. We splashed 
through a nullah, and waded through a lot of rushes, and at last I found 
myself behind a clump of coarse grass, with a nullah between me and 
the antelope. They jumped up on my approach, and Blacky, seeing his 
enemy, made a speedy bolt of it; but I was within easy range of him, 
and a bullet brought him down on his head with a complete somersault. 
Now this buck, in spite of the previous shot at him, and being hunted 
about from day to day, never left his ground, and used to sleep every 
night in a field near my tent.” 
