Jungle By- Ways in India 



tarn once again, let us hope many times again, and 

 to dream there through many long, hot quiet hours 

 of the Happy Hunting Grounds of the future, for 

 barasingha were ' closed ' to shooting in that 

 locality for the rest of the season. 



Magnificent as he was, I could not regret the 

 loss of such a trophy, for I derived more pleasure 

 and a more lasting impression from our meeting 

 in such a manner than I should now from the pos- 

 session of those fine antlers as a result of an easy 

 shot. 



CHITUL OR SPOTTED DEER 



Most people will be inclined to agree that a 

 chitul or spotted deer stag in his natural sur- 

 roundings is a beautiful object, and beautiful in 

 quite a different manner to that of a barasingha or 

 sambhar or the red deer. He has none of the rugged 

 almost fierce beauty which is an attribute of the 

 latter two deer. 



The other day I wounded a stag in a beat, and 

 as soon as the drive had ended I followed the deer 

 into the long grass and tree forest behind me. 

 Blood was plentiful, for the poor beast was hard 

 hit, and at the end of half a mile's easy tracking 

 through open tree forest with but a scant under- 

 growth beneath I came upon my quarry. He was 

 standing beneath a small leafless tree, his head, 

 adorned with a pair of beautifully symmetrical 

 horns, turned towards me, and the sun glinting 



44 



