The Chital, or Indian Spotted Deer 



the herds frequently including hundreds of individuals, 

 among which there is at least one master-stao;. As is 

 the case with most animals associating in large herds, 

 chital are to a considerable degree diurnal, feeciing for 

 several hours after sunrise, and beino; on the move 

 some time before sundown. Where there is a 

 sufficiency of covert, the neighbourhood of human 

 habitations is no detriment to their presence, provided 

 they are not too much disturbed ; and in such localities 

 they frequently do much damage to standing crops. 

 Bamboo -jungle, where there are open glades dotted 

 with isolated clumps, in the immediate vicinity of 

 water, forms some of their favourite haunts. They 

 both graze and browse, and are good swimmers, taking 

 readily to water. Their ordinary cry somewhat 

 resembles a kind of bark, but they also utter a shrill 

 alarm-scream. Although in India most of the fawns 

 are dropped during the cold weather, many are born at 

 other times of the year ; and this implies a correspond- 

 ing irregularity in the shedding of the antlers, which 

 apparently occurs in each buck at a time of year 

 depending upon the season in which it was born. It 

 is stated in the Badminton Library that the irregularity 

 in the time of shedding the antlers is more marked 

 along the foot of the Himalaya than in Central India, 

 where the majority of the stags have these appendages 

 free from velvet in January, and shed them about January. 



Chital are chiefly hunted by stalking ; and the 

 sportsman's best chance of escaping detection when he 

 comes unexpectedly on a herd, is to stand motionless, 

 when, if suitably clothed, he may be mistaken for a 

 tree-stump, whereas if he attempts to crouch he will 

 be detected. This remark applies, of course, to other 

 kinds of game. 



Chital have been acclimatised for more than fifty 

 years in some French and German parks ; and the 

 Duke of Bedford possesses a herd at Woburn Abbey, 

 which is, however, kept in an enclosure. 



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