Game Animals of India, etc. 



most part ; and when such is the case, the fawns, of 

 which one or two make their appearance at a time, are 

 dropped in July or August. In other districts there 

 seems no regular pairing - season, and fawns are 

 produced at any time of year. 



The hoarse, bark-like cry, from which the name 

 kakar is derived, is uttered not only by the bucks in 

 pairing-time, but, under the influence of alarm, at any 

 season of the year ; during the pairing-time it is most 

 commonly heard in the morning and evening, although 

 occasionally it may startle the traveller after darkness 

 has fallen. During their contests with one another the 

 bucks appear to rely upon their long upper tusks, 

 rather than upon their antlers. In spite of their 

 tendency to coarse feeding, muntjac yield a venison 

 superior to that of most Indian deer. 



I have tried to shoot kakar by having the jungles on 

 a hill-side beaten ; but since these little deer are solitary, 

 it is seldom that they come near the sportsman, if there 

 be only a single gun in the field, consequently the 

 sport is by no means exciting or satisfactory. In places 

 where they are numerous, the best plan is to walk them 

 up in covert when they are on the feed in the evening 

 or the early morning. 



Muntjac have long been acclimatised in France ; and 

 at Rambouillet they survived the severe winter of 1879- 

 1880 with only the shelter of an open shed. They run 

 wild in the Duke of Bedford's coverts at Woburn 

 Abbey. 



Muntjac in India are stated to shed their antlers in 

 May and renew them in August ; but a head of a 

 Tibetan muntjac which came under my notice leads me 

 to think that the shedding is not annual. In this speci- 

 men (shot in a wild state) the antlers are so worn and 

 polished that the external surface has become abraded, 

 leaving the hard white inner layer, which has been 

 polished to such an extent that it resembles ivory. Such 

 wearing seems unlikely to have been caused within less 



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