92 THE WILDERNESS AND JUNGLE 



in Kipling's stories, a handsome villain that 

 runs down its prey in packs. From the moment 

 these deadly hunters get on his trail, the stag is 

 doomed and knows it, and in such terror do 

 these deer go of wild dogs that they at once 

 desert a district at the first sign of them. For- 

 tunately, the wild dog is not afraid of man, so 

 that there is not as a rule much difficulty in 

 shooting it, an opportunity of doing which 

 should never be missed, as these animals are 

 among the worst poachers in India. Although, 

 as will presently be shown, the wild dogs of 

 Africa utter a note not unlike that of a fox- 

 hound, the ordinary cry of these creatures is 

 more like a howl, barking being an accom- 

 plishment acquired in the tame state, though 

 there is no record of when or how it was 

 learnt. These dholes occasionally go mad, like 

 elephants in must, and in that condition they 

 sometimes run amok in the villages, biting men 

 and goats and even, in lonely districts, attack- 

 ing and killing coolies. They are not carrion- 

 eaters, like the jackal, but kill their own food. 



To return, after this digression, to the bara- 

 singh, it is also known as the Kashmir 

 stag and is regularly shot by sportsmen in 

 October, when its horns are in good con- 

 dition and the herds are migrating eastwards 

 through the passes and nullahs of the Hima- 

 laya. The hinds and fawns, realising perhaps 



