30 Leaves from an Indian Jungle. 



brute, and he will not usually leave the poor flesh until it is 

 difficult to tell to whom it once belonged. That this picture 

 is not too highly coloured may be proved by anyone travel- 

 ling in those parts. Gruesome objects, jawless, scalped 

 horrors, are at the present moment to be seen in the ham- 

 lets of the forest region referred to. These are instances 

 of the somewhat incomplete handiwork of Melursus. 



Fewer accidents occur to the sportsman through the 

 agency of bears than by that of felines. This is to be 

 attributed to various reasons. Melursus is not so quick, 

 and his armament is inferior to that of tiger or panther : 

 the ground he chooses as his resort often abounds in points 

 of vantage for the hunter on foot : his black coat will not 

 permit him to hide in a handful of twigs all this, added 

 to the fact that some of our books on Indian sport make 

 light of and poke fun at him, induces the ordinary sports- 

 man to undertake operations against the sloth bear with- 

 out, perhaps, that seriousness which would accompany his 

 actions when tackling more dangerous game. 



However, it is a dangerous thing to underrate one's adver- 

 sary ; and nasty, sometimes fatal, accidents have before now 

 occurred to sportsmen, who have discovered too late that 

 the so-called sloth or " Honey " bear can on occasion 

 wake up, and attack with remarkable vigour, inflicting 

 wounds as severe, though not so dangerous, as those dealt 

 by the felidce. 



She-bears of this variety, with cubs, are apparently the 

 offenders inmost cases of unprovoked assault, although it is 

 the writer's experience that, when wounded, bears have been 

 more aggressive as a rule than similarly wounded felines. 



Bear stories are so common, and have figured so largely 

 in tales of Indian sport, that in sympathy with the reader 

 one must at the outset cry- " Halt ! " But the narrative of 



