BY TAMARIND AND MHOWA 179 



distant glint proclaims the line taken by our stag. He 

 will not go far, however ; and, sad to relate, we shall 

 certainly return to secure that splendid pair of horns. 



While their watering habits vary slightly, according to 

 the situation of the necessary fluid, chital may be said 

 to drink twice a day at dawn and about sunset. 



If covert is nigh, whence a deadly rush may bring a 

 feline foe, their approach to water is an extraordinary 

 sight. The writer once spent a moonlit night in a tree, 

 sitting up for a tiger, and was awaiting the arrival of 

 his men from camp ere descending to earth. All night 

 long the chital stags had been braying and polishing their 

 antlers against trees in the surrounding woods, and now, 

 with the first green flush of dawn, a large body of spotted 

 deer, ever gregarious, gathered hesitatingly on the bank 

 above the pool, which lay almost directly below our 

 machdn. 



At last a wary old hind slowly descended the steep bank, 

 lifting cautious feet with a comical high-stepping action ; 

 and halted half-way down. 



Suddenly she whistled, and bolted up the bank ; and the 

 whole herd darted out of sight into the jungle. 



After some time they slowly collected again. This time 

 the hind got as far as the sandy bed of the little river, 

 when she sounded another alarm and off they all went a 

 second time. 



Returning once more, the whole scene was re-enacted, 

 with this exception, that as several deer had now got 

 close to the pool, there was a bigger and more complete 

 stampede when the warning whistle went. 



At length, either having tired of false alarms or -being 

 satisfied that these their efforts to force a lurking enemy 

 to disclose his position would have met with success had 

 he been there, the herd descended the bank in earnest, and 

 crowded to the water's edge ; but the timid creatures spent 

 nearly all their time in lowering their heads and sharply 



