JUNGLE LORE 213 



learn to note on hard rocky ground a small overturned 

 stone, showing a slightly darker, because moister, surface 

 than its neighbours ; learn to read the marks left on foliage 

 and bark by the teeth as the animal browsed, and so estimate 

 by the oozing sap or its stoppage and the browning of the 

 cut edges, the length of time which has elapsed since his 

 passage. 



Other signs which afford evidence are the peeling of the 

 bark of saplings by deer ; rubbing the bark to allay the 

 irritation set up when the velvet is peeling off the horns ; 

 and the scoring of the bark with their claws by bears, either 

 in stretching themselves or to cause the sweet sap to flow. 



It is a wonderful thing to watch a first-class tracker carry 

 the trail over all sorts of ground. Up to a certain point 

 much can be learnt by hard work and persistent attention. 

 It is one of the finest parts of the lore of the jungles. It 

 may be commended as an art worth the serious study of all 

 who wish to enjoy to the full the joys of the life of a shikari 

 in India's glorious jungles. 



I remember hearing it said by an Anglo-Indian, before I 

 first went to India, that the peculiarity of the Indian jungles 

 was their extraordinary silence. I do not think that he was 

 a shikari man, and perhaps he only went into the jungles 

 during the hotter part of the day. Most of the mammals, 

 as also the birds, are then taking their siesta ; but even so, 

 there is still noise enough, for the cicadas, grasshoppers, 

 crickets and others of the clamorous portion of the insect life 

 of the jungles, are awake and talking or singing after their 

 fashion. But, if we omit the hotter portion of the day, in 

 the morning and evening (and at night) the jungles are full 

 of sound. In tigerish parts the animal may often be heard, 

 either voicing his vexation in short angry growls when he 

 has missed his quarry and has to seek a fresh neighbour- 

 hood ; or when on his way to his kill, uttering short roars 

 varying in degree or snarling with rage at the birds 

 overhead. Temper, i.e. the feelings uppermost at the 

 moment, may have as much to do with the manner 

 of approach as anything else that and temperament. 

 During the mating season the males are particularly 

 noisy. But this is common to other animals, and the cat 

 tribe are often very rough to their own mates. Stags, as is 

 well known, are at that period full of fight and I have 

 heard many a time and oft the hoarse challenge of the 



