60 ANIMALS AT WORK AND PL A Y 



less dholes sleeping and playing and scratching them- 

 selves among the little hollows and tussocks they 

 use for lairs/ This quotation sounds like an original 

 observation of the habits of the ' dhole,' though it 

 may not be Mr Kipling's own experience. 



The ' field naturalist ' does not seem to exist 

 in India ; and though the chroniclers of big-game 

 shooting occasionally meet the wild dogs, and have 

 described their method of hunting, the presence 

 of a pack is almost sufficient inducement to the 

 sportsman to leave a district where they appear. 

 * They become a regular pest to the sportsman, 

 as well as to the natives/ writes General Douglas 

 Hamilton, in his Sport in Southern India, 'as they 

 drive away all the deer from the district ; the 

 sambur has the most intense dread of these poach- 

 ing rascals, and will leave a locality for months, 

 after being hunted by them.' General Hamilton 

 disturbed a small pack, and shot one dog as it 

 was 'leisurely walking up the slope of a hill.' This 

 dog 'had a wound all along its back, some days 

 old. It was seven inches long, and had opened 

 out two or three inches wide, and was evidently 

 a gore from a deer's antler.' This dog was exactly 

 four feet long, the tail being one foot. They were 

 constantly seen hunting sambur deer on the Annamully 

 hills. The country was open, but studded with 



