HUNTING IN THE INDIES 193 



to hunt them in some parts of India, but as a rule 

 it is not done. In fact I never heard of such a thing, 

 but it may be done in the Madras Presidency. 



II. HUNTING WITH GREYHOUNDS IN THE INDIAN 



PLAINS. 



In writing of the heading of this chapter I have 

 purposely avoided the use of the word " coursing," 

 because I consider the word cannot properly be taken 

 to mean the pursuit of the fox. A second reason 

 for my doing so consists in the fact that of coursing 

 proper I know nothing, for I have never seen grey- 

 hounds at work in England. This may seem a 

 strange confession for a man devoted to sport 

 to make ; but the leash never had any charms 

 for me. Trotting along the boundless plains, with 

 a couple of hounds running by one's side, and ready 

 for any four-footed animal which might appear^ is, 

 to my mind, quite a different class of amusement. 

 In English coursing, judging from written descrip- 

 tions, the judge must be the only man who really 

 gets any fun. Mr Jorrocks can hardly have ever 

 acted in that capacity, or else his famous stricture 

 on the sport — "Now of all the slow, starvation, great- 

 coat, comforter, worsted-stockin', dirty nose sorts of 

 amusement, that same melancholy coursin' is to me 

 the most miserably contemptible," ^ — would have re- 

 mained unspoken. 



When, many years ago, I first went out to India, 

 I landed at the end of winter, and was promptly 



* Handley Cross, chap. xxix. p. 221, 



N 



