THE DHOLE. 219 



certainly not a bellow, nor is it a grunt, but 

 is very like the roar of a tiger when charging. 

 We now had time to examine the buffalo. It was 

 a magnificent beast, in its prime. The spread 

 of the horns was enormous, quite twelve feet 

 from tip to tip, measured round the curve. The 

 dholes had torn the poor creature's genitals com- 

 pletely out ; both scrotum and testes were gone, 

 so that death would have occurred in a little time 

 if we had not shot it. I don't know whether any 

 other writer on shikar has noticed this peculiar 

 method of attack by wild dogs. I have seen it 

 stated that they generally make for the eye and 

 seize their prey there. Some say that they make 

 for the heels, and hamstring their quarry ; but I 

 have invariably noticed in deer, buffalo, and bison 

 that have been run down by wild dogs that the 

 genitals have been the place of attack. Only 

 three weeks ago, a young sambhur was run down 

 by a pair of wild dogs near my camp. The poor 

 brute ran in among the coolies, who drove off 

 the dogs and secured the sambhur, but it had 

 to be killed, as the genitals were almost torn out 

 and it would have died in a short time. 



A friend of mine, a coffee planter in the Wynaad, 

 once had a pair of dhole puppies brought him by 

 the coolies. Although only just able to run about, 

 the foxy smell from them was so intolerable that 

 no amount of washing would remove it, and they 

 had to be sent away from the bungalow and 

 lodged in the hen-house. My friend succeeded 

 in rearing the slut, and from her he got a litter 



