THE AXIS OR SPOTTED DEER. 275 



which was underneath him. This stag was the one I had 

 been after for the last two years. On one occasion I missed 

 him ; on another he came over the hill with two hinds and a 

 young stag when he " did me " by crossing on the other side 

 too far for a certain shot. I named him " Sir Charles " after 

 my friend Sir Charles Trevelyan. 



One of the most beautiful denizens of the Indian Forest 

 is the Axis or Spotted Deer (Axis maculata, Cervus axis). 

 All Southern Indian sportsmen love the pursuit of these 

 graceful " dappled beauties ; " it leads them amongst some of 

 the most characteristic scenery of hill and plain, as well as the 

 bamboo jungles and their verdant glades, and although he 

 cannot be compared with the lordly sambur as an object of 

 sport, still there is a peculiar attraction in the glossy bright 

 and spotted hide of the buck cheetul. I first became 

 acquainted with them in the Dandilly Forest in 1844 and 

 came across many a herd. We shot a fair number, but I 

 had the misfortune to lose a very grand buck. We had 

 been out after bison, and had just crossed a nullah when 

 we saw a large herd of spotted deer feeding a long way off. 

 The shikarie told me to go on by myself which I did. There 

 were some splendid bucks with the herd. When some thirty 

 yards off, one of them with magnificent antlers saw me ; 

 fearing that he would give the alarm, I let drive at him, and 

 down he came on his knees, but was up again and away with 

 a broken thigh. I dashed after him and came up to him 

 hobbling away very slowly, but before I could get another 

 fair shot he had disappeared in the jungle, and although we 

 tracked him for more than a mile I never saw him again. 

 These deer are at times most difficult to see in the jungle. 

 In this instance after giving up the wounded buck, the 



