1^52 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTEAL ^DIA. 



scantily-covered hills without wondering at the extreme 

 difficulty of making out such large animals as sambar^ 

 bison, and bears on the open hill-side. The bison and 

 bear precisely resemble the large black trap boulders 

 that thickly strew every hill ; and thus the glaring 

 contrast of their black hides with the bright yellow 

 grass frequently attracts no attention whatever. 



On my way back I knocked over a four-horned 

 antelope, with very perfect horns, a long distance across 

 a valley with the "Express." These little creatures are 

 very common in the hills we were hunting in, living 

 solitary or in small groups in all parts of the range. 

 The female is hornless, while the buck has four distinct 

 sheathed horns. The posterior pair are four or five 

 inches long, and set upon high pedicles covered with 

 hair. The anterior pair are generally mere knobs, and 

 never exceed in length an inch and three-fourths. In 

 some specimens they are even absent altogether. The 

 animal is found throughout India, and appears to be 

 generally without the anterior horns in the South. 

 Here, in Central India, some have them and some have 

 not. I never could see any other difference between 

 them ; but it is not altogether certain that there are 

 not two distinct species. The preponderance of females 

 appears to be very great, quite as great as in the case 

 of the ordinary Indian antelope, though from their not 

 congregating in large herds, it is not so much observed. 

 To kill a buck at all is rare, and to kill one with four 

 well-developed horns is much rarer still. They seem 

 to be very retiring little creatures, never coming to 

 the crops, and moving very little out of the limited 

 area where they find food and water. There is scarcely 

 a water-hole in all these regions which is not frequented 



