VARIETY OF GAME MET WITH IN A BEAT 409 



he will dash out of the cover straight ahead at full 

 speed ; occasionally he stops and turns his head to listen, 

 his long bell-shaped ears twitching backwards and forwards 

 restlessly the while, endeavouring to catch the slightest sound. 

 Should the wind enable him to catch the scent of the sports- 

 man, he will immediately dash off at right angles to his former 

 course with long bounds, uttering a sharp bell of alarm. But 

 hark ! what is that sharp clattering of hoofs on the hard 

 ground ? some animal is pelting along towards the sportsman. 

 Presently with a bound a chestnut-coloured, short-horned 

 animal scurries past like a flash, uttering a sharp bark as he 

 darts off at a tangent on catching sight of his foe. A troop 

 of chattering monkeys next put in an appearance, some 

 running along the ground, others tearing away through the 

 foliage overhead, and all in a great hurry to get out of dangers 

 way. Mothers, clutching their young one with one arm, skip 

 from branch to branch in fear and trepidation. Old scowling 

 males scamper along on all-fours over the ground, stopping 

 occasionally to rise on their hind-legs and look back along their 

 line of flight. In a short time they have all disappeared. A 

 few pheasants now hurry along, uttering the low gurgling cries 

 peculiar to them when disturbed. The beaters soon draw 

 near, and there does not seem to be another living thing in the 

 cover, when suddenly a huge solitary boar charges out at a 

 terrific pace, to be met with a right and left from the sports- 

 man which terminates his career for ever. A more glorious 

 death would have been his if, instead of the deadly tube, the 

 sportsman had met him face to face in the open with the spear. 

 A jungle-cock now comes running along followed by a whole 

 harem of hens, and, passing to the right of the sportsman, 

 they all get up and fly off with startled screams on perceiving 

 him. A few squirrels next scamper through the foliage, and 

 perhaps a porcupine or an iguana scuttles away, the two latter 

 making more noise than a dozen animals of greater worth. 



The beaters now come into view with dishevelled heads and 

 garments, their long hair streaming about their necks and 

 shoulders, and perspiring from every pore. Some sit down to 

 extract thorns from the soles of their naked feet and other parts 

 of their persons, which are usually unprotected from the thighs 



