VARIETY OF GAME. 165 



" happy hunting - grounds," my shikar experiences were so 

 numerous and varied that I shall endeavour to describe one 

 or two only of those best suited to give a general idea of the 

 wild sport of this locality. 



The quantity of small game was formerly far greater than 

 it was even within my own recollection, more particularly 

 in the western part of the valley, where the ground in some 

 places was pretty clear of forest, and where tracts of long 

 grass, intersected by streams, were interspersed with patches 

 of cultivation, sedgy marshes, and bush jungle, in which kind 

 of ground the black partridge delights. Here were also to be 

 found hares, pea-fowl, jungle-fowl, wild-fowl, grey partridges, 

 plovers, several kinds of snipe and quails, and sometimes a 

 floriken, a few sand-grouse, and occasionally a woodcock, &c. 



When beating for small game, a sounder of wild pigs, or a 

 deer, was not unfrequently driven from among the long grass 

 and bushes, and I have known of a leopard, and even the 

 striped king of the forest, having been disturbed in like 

 manner. But as regards the two latter, such instances were 

 rare, as feline animals, although numerous in the adjacent 

 jungles, seldom ventured during the daytime into the open. 

 Just before nightfall, however, they often prowled out after 

 the village cattle. I remember, one evening when skirting 

 along the margin of the forest after any game that might 

 chance to turn up, coming unexpectedly upon a tiger as it 

 was coolly taking its way down a wood-carting track towards 

 the open country. This animal, when he saw our elephants 

 slowly advancing within eighty yards, merely stopped short 

 and slowly retraced his steps. The shot winch I lost no time 

 in letting go, was replied to by the deep guttural grunt which 

 a tiger almost invariably gives vent to when a bullet tells on 

 him. Wheeling suddenly round, he struck a heavy blow 

 with his paw at a tree that stood in his way, and forthwith 

 charged straight down on the line. Grunting forth his wrath, 

 he dashed open-mouthed right in among the elephants, \vh. n 



