CREATURES OF THE WILDERNESS 93 



that they have nothing to fear, feed close to 

 the villages of the hillmen, but the old stags 

 show great caution and remain on higher 

 ground, where they are among the most diffi- 

 cult of all animals to stalk. 



Of Indian antelopes, the handsomest and 

 best known is the blackbuck. By the way, 

 only the old bucks are actually black. Young 

 males and does of all ages are yellow, but as 

 the buck alone is shot for the sake of its black, 

 corkscrew-shaped horns, which measure about 

 twenty inches in a good head, the distinction of 

 colour is not widely appreciated. Though this 

 antelope is a dweller in the plains, occurring 

 almost all over India, from the foot of the 

 Himalaya to the sea coast, it is also found in 

 forest country in the Central Provinces, and it 

 is here, in fact, that the finest trophies are 

 bagged, those from the Madras Presidency 

 being much poorer. The blackbuck is regarded 

 as a very difficult animal to stalk, which is 

 remarkable, considering how it makes itself at 

 home among the crops and in the midst of the 

 native population. It may be that, in this case, 

 the neighbourhood of man has taught it caution. 

 This is the antelope which the rajahs and 

 nabobs used to hunt with tame " cheetahs," 

 or hunting-leopards, and some of them used 

 lynxes for the same sport, but these are no 

 longer employed, and even the hunting-leopard 



