256 SHIKAR SKETCHES. 



with the exception, perhaps, of the chikara or 

 ravine deer. It is one of the smallest of the 

 antelope tribe. In height it seldom exceeds 

 eighteen inches, and is more of a fawn colour than 

 a muntjak. The hoofs, like those of this latter 

 species, are long, slender, and upright, and it 

 resembles it also in its peculiar, stilted gait ; the 

 hair, however, is much coarser in texture. The 

 buck has four distinct sheathed horns, while the 

 female is hornless. The posterior horns are about 

 four and a half to five inches in length, whilst 

 the anterior ones seldom exceed one and a half 

 inches in length, but more frequently they are 

 mere horny knobs- The animal seems to be 

 pretty evenly distributed all over India, wherever 

 the jungle is thick enough to afford them the 

 seclusion they seem to delight in. Females seem 

 to preponderate, and to kill a buck is rare, and to 

 get one with the four horns perfectly developed 

 rarer still. I never succeeded in getting one my- 

 self, but Captain Clay of my regiment, with 

 whom I was out in the Chanda district, one hot 

 weather, shot two, one a nearly perfect head, and 

 the other a very fair one. 



They seem very shy and retiring in their habits, 

 and may generally be found near some water-hole, 

 lying in a patch of grass, in which they make 

 forms like a hare, and are often nearly trodden on 



