BACK IN THE JUNGLES AGAIN 



179 



cared nothing. With luck the fishing should be good and 

 the great grass jungles alive with game ; though it was 

 doubtful whether we should be able to see anything to 

 shoot owing to the great height and density of the grass ; 

 unless we had the good fortune to stumble across a tiger or 

 leopard. 



Have you ever been out in the great grass jungles, the 

 tiger-grass jungles, at the close of the rains ? They are a 

 stupendous sight as seen from the back of 

 an elephant. A sea of green spreads all 

 around one with, rising above it, the tall, 

 graceful, nodding stems of the flower- 

 heads, each ending in a long, elegant, 

 white, feathery spike. They bend and dip 

 as the wind whispers through them in a 

 most delightful fashion. As far as the eye 

 can reach stretches the giant grass with 

 here and there a great tree rearing its lofty 

 crown far above it. Down below, fifteen feet 

 below, who can tell of the innumerable life 

 which finds its home in the grass jungles at the end of the 

 rains ? As the elephant slowly forges its way through the 

 dense mass you hear sudden rushes, but can perceive nothing. 

 Only by the intensity of the sound can you make a shrewd 

 guess as to the identity of the fugitive. Sambhar, spotted 

 deer, hogdeer (Cervus porcinus), swamp deer or barasingha 

 (Cervus duvauceli), it may be any of these. As for pig ! You 

 will know him right enough by the noise of his indignant 

 protests at being thus disturbed, and by the disgust of the 

 elephant at his near presence. But neither tiger nor leopard 

 are likely to advertise their departure. They will recognize 

 the presence of an elephant long before he is near them and 

 will silently get out of his path ; since they know it is both 

 useless and unwise to provoke him. Of the smaller 

 mammals jackals, foxes, civets, wild cats, hyenas, wild 

 dogs numbers must be at present roaming the grass jungles, 

 for it is here that the greater bulk of the animals on which 

 they prey are collected. As you move along pea-fowl, jungle 

 fowl, partridge, and quail will rise with startled squawks above 

 the grass-heads, fly skimmingly over the surface for a short 

 distance, and go to ground again, lost at once in the dense 

 sea of green. Of smaller birds numbers will be seen clinging 

 to the tall flower-heads, pecking at the developing seeds or 



