164 DIARY OF A SPORTSMAN NATURALIST 



care for this method of stealing unperceived upon the animals, 

 infinitely preferring to pit my skill as a stalker over open 

 ground against the natural wariness of the antelope. 



I had been out several times after buck before the 

 morning dealt with here, but had only achieved success as 

 yet on one occasion when the head secured had been a very 

 small one ; for I had not had the patience to wait till I got 

 near the big buck of the herd. On subsequent occasions I 

 had missed other heads all stalked fairly in the open : 

 sometimes I was seen by the graceful little animals who 

 were ever on the qui vive in these parts at others I had 

 made bad misses. 



This morning I was determined to take no chances as on 

 the morrow the camp was leaving for the big jungles and I 

 would probably not have another opportunity at buck that 

 year. 



As has been said the havildah and self had set out from 

 the camp with one attendant at dawn, leaving instructions 

 that we should be back to breakfast not later than eleven 

 o'clock. I had ridden a pony to a place three miles from the 

 camp where buck were usually plentiful, and where informa- 

 tion had been obtained that one of the herds contained a 

 good head. 



On arrival at the rendezvous a villager was found await- 

 ing us. I dismounted and teUing the syce to wait with the 

 pony in the shade of a clump of trees, I set off, preceded 

 by the villager and followed by the havildah. The man 

 who had accompanied us from the camp was ordered to 

 follow at a distance and to sit down the moment the buck 

 were seen. We had covered a bare quarter of a mile when 

 we turned into a sunk mud road with prickly-pear bushes 

 growing on the banks on either side. A little way along 

 this the villager climbed on to the right bank and looked 

 through the bushes. 



He made a sign and I clambered quietly up. Looking in 

 the direction pointed out I saw a herd of some fifteen buck 

 about three hundred yards away in the open fields. Two 

 hundred yards beyond them the fields dropped into a wind- 

 ing narrow ravine, the cultivated lands stretching for some 

 hundred yards on the far side of the ravine. 



At first the stalk appeared quite an easy one, as if I got 

 into the ravine I could creep up and wait till the antelopes 

 approached and get a pot shot. 



