DANDILLY FOREST. 4 I 



the difficulty of distinguishing animals on account of the 

 adaptation of their colour to that of surrounding objects ; 

 even old hands are often deceived. For example, the axis, or 

 spotted deer as it is generally called, is something like the 

 fallow deer in colour, only the white spots and markings are 

 more distinct, and the body is a brighter red ; one would 

 imagine such a conspicuous animal could be easily distin- 

 guished in the forest, but the spots and colour so amalgamate 

 with the broken lights and shades that I have often taken a 

 shot at what I thought was a solitary spotted deer, and have 

 been astonished to see ten or twelve dash away. The tiger, 

 again, with his bright body, black stripes and white markings, 

 is most difficult to see in the forest, and even on the open hill 

 side ; at 300 or 400 yards distant not a stripe is distinguish- 

 able. More than once I have mistaken a tiger for a light- 

 coloured hind sambur, until I have brought the telescope to 

 bear and seen my mistake. 



I had a long time to wait before I could get leave to 

 visit this glorious forest ; at last the happy day arrived, and I 

 having procured a month's leave started with a brother 

 officer at half-past four one fine morning, and rode as hard 

 as we could gallop to Dharwar, seventy-eight miles distant. I 

 had six horses posted and my companion five ; there was 

 nothing but a kind of bridle path between the two stations in 

 those days, and although the country was very flat and open 

 we managed to lose our way, fortunately, however, recovering 

 it without much loss of time. The next day we rode twenty- 

 four miles, and the following morning soon got over the 

 remaining ten to the Dandilly bungalow. There we found 

 old Emam, the head shikarie, waiting for us ; he was quite a 

 character and a splendid stalker — a huge stout negro con- 



