60 THE HKxHLAXDS OF CENTRAL INDIA. 



the corn districts of Central India it is found in con- 

 siderable herds, and does much damage to the young 

 crops. I have seen herds in the fSagar country, im- 

 mediately after the Mutiny of 1857, when they were 

 little molested, which must have numbered a thousand 

 or more individuals. A tolerable shot could at that 

 time kill almost any number he chose. In most culti- 

 vated districts, tracts of the poorer land are kept under 

 grass for cattle-grazing, etc., and these preserves are 

 generally the favourite midday resorts and the breeding- 

 grounds of the antelopes. Thence in the evening they 

 troop out in squadrons on to the cultivated lands in the 

 vicinity ; and all the night long continue grazing on the 

 tender wheat shoots, returning in the gray of the morn- 

 ing to their safe retreat. Many will, however, remain 

 in the fields the whole day, sleeping and grazing at 

 intervals, unless driven off by the cultivators. In such 

 places the voices of the watchers in the fields wdll be 

 heard in the still night shouting continuously at the 

 antelopes ; but they seldom succeed in effecting more 

 than to move them about from field to field, doing more 

 damage probably than if they were left alone, for a buck 

 killed in the morning will always be found filled nearly 

 to bursting with the green food. Although many of 

 them are shot by the village shikaris at night, and more 

 snared and netted by the professional hunters called 

 Pardis (w^ho use a trained bullock in stalking round 

 the herds to screen their movements), the resources 

 of the natives are altogether insufficient, in a country 

 favourable to them, to keep down the numbers of these 

 prolific and wary creatures ; and it is a perfect godsend 

 to them when the European sportsman hits on their 

 neighbourhood ns a hunting-ground. 



