236 



" interests, and so assist the Commissioner to the best of your 

 " power ; and ere long we shall soon be able to hold up our small 

 t( but elevated principality as a model, in this and many other 

 " respects, to all India ; and the sportsman's heart will rejoice to 

 " know that slaughter and butchery are no more ! ! ! " Vale /" 



" HAWKEYE." 



NOTE. In the new "Act" a reward for the wild dog, say rupees five, might l)e 

 offered with advantage. 



I remember a somewhat similar case to the one last mentioned 

 by HAWKEYE. During a beat for large game, a fine wild dog 

 evidently tried to protect the rest of the pack which, with some 

 fat little whelps among them, passed me at their utmost speed. 

 Instead of following them, this dog turned off at a right angle and 

 ran down the line of sportsmen. He was apparently very angry 

 and, as HATVKEYE says, looked very handsome, waving about his 

 fine black brush and growling or rather snarling loudly at each 

 man he passed. I forget whether any of us fired at him, but he 

 managed to get off himself and gained his object as far as I was 

 concerned, for I should have tried to secure one of the cubs had he 

 not succeeded in taking up my attention. 



No. 36, Page 55. Vulpes Bengalensis. 

 The Indian Fox. 



My remark that foxes found on black cotton soil will not give 

 so good runs as those from red earth whereon food is not so 

 easily procured has been corroborated by experience at Kamptee 

 where the ground is with very few exceptions black and the foxes, 

 although large and handsome, are run into with ordinary dogs 

 more quickly than at any other station I have been quartered in. 

 They are so harmless and beautiful that it is a sin to kill them : 

 but the wonderful grace and dexterity they bring into play in 

 doubling before and baffling dogs have always been to me so 

 interesting that fox coursing with a brace of greyhounds has been 

 a temptation ; I have never tried to resist. 



Jerdon's descriptions of the common and the "Desert Fox, 

 Vulpes leucopus." No. 1 39 of his book, are as follows : 

 The Indian Fox. 



"Reddish-grey, rufous on the legs and muzzle, reddish-white 



