135 



of Jerdon. Once being very well-mounted, on an undeniable Arab, 

 that before and after won several very good races, I rode down a 

 fairly sized fawn. When I was close to and fast gaining on ray 

 quarry, over ground open and hard ; I suppose I must have taken 

 my eye off the chase for a moment, probably to look at the future 

 line of country. I suddenly and unaccountably lost sight of the 

 fawn which had disappeared as if by magic, for nowhere near was 

 there sufficient cover to conceal a hare Fairly puzzled, I pulled 

 up on a small rising ground on which I had last seen the fawn a 

 few lengths in my front, and looked in all directions until I was 

 about to give up the chase in despair, when the horse snorting 

 and pricking his ears, attracted my attention to the poor little 

 animal, that with ears and head laid close to the ground, was, just 

 under the Arab's nose, squatted in a hollow so very shallow, that 

 he could not have concealed himself, had he not thus laid his ears 

 flat. This tale is to me a difficult one to tell, and therefore 

 clumsily related, but when pace and ground, pursued and pursuer 

 are taken into consideration, the working of instinct which pointed 

 out the slight vantage ground, a hollow hardly deep enough to con- 

 ceal half his little body and probably the only shelter near him, and 

 caused the fawn to avail himself of it, must have been instantane- 

 ous. Again, at one of the afternoon open air receptions at Govern- 

 ment House in Madras : in the midst of visitors, croquet players, 

 bandsmen, &c., I found a very young fawn squatting in the same 

 way on the lawn, so still, that some ladies, to whom I showed it, 

 would not believe it was alive, until I put it off its " form," when 

 it went away at speed. The little creature must have been con- 

 cealed by the mother when she went to feed, probably just before 

 the reception commenced, and both she and it were biding their 

 time until the guests dispersed. 



Some of the best runs with a spear I have ever had, have been 

 after wounded antelope ; and I do not know any termination to a 

 successful shot more satisfactory than a gallop of this kind. I have, 

 like Jerdon, page 278, when trying to spear a wounded buck 

 known one, with a broken foreleg, " give a run of three miles 

 " before he was overhauled, and that on tolerably good ground.' ' 

 I was once too, when riding a very well-bred Arab, famous for his 

 staying powers, fairly, and indeed ignominiousJy, beaten by a doe, 



