THE CROW'S WARNING. 26 I 



I saw him making for the stream below in a dying state ; 

 he staggered on and fell dead in a clump of reed bamboos 

 at the edge of the stream ; a huge stag with the most 

 massive antlers I have ever seen. My first shot had 

 struck him at the point of the left shoulder and the second 

 behind the right shoulder, both deadly wounds. When 

 the people went to fetch in the meat in the afternoon 

 they said a leopard had been feeding on the carcass. I 

 went out to watch for him in the evening, but he did not 

 show himself. 



On the 22nd January, 1869, I was out in the early 

 morning, and in passing over some ground where I had 

 burned the grass, found fresh tracks of elephants. I 

 measured the circumference of the largest foot print and 

 made it sixty-five and a half inches, this multiplied by two 

 gives the height of the elephant, ten feet eleven inches ; 

 as it was doubtful when the tracks had been made, we 

 passed on to the sambur ground, and came on fresh tracks 

 of ibex with those of either a tiger or a large panther, 

 and shortly after my shikarie, Francis, pointed out two 

 sambur by the side of a large wood, and one appeared to 

 be a handsome stag. I had a long stalk down to them, 

 and in the meantime they moved into a dip between two 

 woods. Whilst watching them, a crow settled on the antlers 

 of the large one and kept cawing as if warning him of my 

 approach ; however, the stag did not appear to understand 

 crow language, for on my crossing over the side of the hill 

 the crow was gone but the stag was standing quite unalarmed 

 about eighty yards away from me. Part of him was hidden 

 by a tree, but a step on one side uncovered his shoulder, and 

 the next moment 1 had pitched him apparently right on his 



