68 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTRAL INDIA. 



The wolf is extremely common in the northern parts of the 

 province ; frequenting the same sort of ground as the antelope 

 and chikara, I have very seldom met with them in forest 

 tracts ; and I think that in India they are. clearly a plain- 

 loving species. They unite in parties of five or six to hunt ; 

 the latter being the largest number I have ever seen together. 

 More generally they are found singly or in couples. I have 

 several times observed them in the act of hunting the ante- 

 lope ; their method being to steal in on all sides of a detached 

 party of does and fawns, and trust to a united rush to capture 

 one or more of them before they attain their speed. Fast as 

 the wolf is (as you will learn if you try to ride him down), I 

 do not believe he is capable of running down an antelope in a 

 fair hunt, though doubtless old or injured animals are thus 

 killed by him. When game is not to be had, the wolf seldom 

 fails to get a meal in the neighbourhood of villages, in the 

 shape of a dog or a goat. They are deadly foes to the former ; 

 and will stand outside a village or the travellers' camp at 

 night, and howl until some inexperienced cur sallies forth to 

 reply, when the lot of that cur will probably be to return no 

 more. Unfortunately the wolf of Central India does not 

 always confine himself to such substitutes for legitimate game ; 

 and the loss of human life from these hideous brutes has 

 recently been ascertained to be so great that a heavy reward 

 is now offered for their destruction. Though not generally 

 venturing beyond children often or twelve years old, yet when 

 confirmed in the habit of man-eating, they do not hesitate 

 to attack, at an advantage, full-grown women and even adult 

 men. A good many instances occurred, during the construction 

 of the railway through the low jungles north of Jubbulpur, 

 of labourers on the works being so attacked, and sometimes 

 killed and eaten. The attack was commonly made by a pair 



