282 BIG GAME SHOOTING 



I found it impossible to localise one. They never, as 

 far as I could hear, killed cattle or ponies, but a 

 sheep was their special fancy. Having eaten one or 

 two in one place they promptly shifted their ground, 

 and never laid up after a feed. I could only hear of 

 one man ever having been attacked by one, and that 

 was a very old story. 



CHEETAL, SPOTTED DEER 



This deer is to be found in all the jungly parts of 

 India, except in the desert or dry districts of the 

 Punjab and Scind. It is essentially a forest dweller 

 and runs in herds, bucks and does together. In the 

 early morning they may generally be found grazing 

 in glades and on the outskirts of the forest. They 

 carry very pretty heads of six points, brow antlers 

 and two terminals, like the sambur. The cheetal 

 and tiger may be said to run together that is to say, 

 where there are cheetal there are always tigers. In 

 beating the Terai jungles at the foot of the Himalayas, 

 having finished the tiger beat, the order for pro- 

 miscuous shooting is given, then many of these 

 beautiful beasts are brought to bag, for they generally 

 allow the line of elephants close up to them in the 

 forest before they break away. Hog deer which 

 frequent the swampy portions of tiger beats are also 

 shot in large numbers in the same way. Their 

 horns, like those of the cheetal, only carry the brow 

 antlers and two terminals, but they never run to any 

 size and are poor trophies. They are mostly shot 



