18 SPORT IN BENGAL. 



jungle-cock and the black partridge now crow their loudest, 

 and the marsh partridge his noisiest ; the night air is musical 

 to the ear of the sportsman, with the clanging notes of 

 migrating cranes and wild geese, and the swish and rush of 

 flights of teal and duck ; the peacock sounds morning and 

 evening his loud and discordant cries of alarm or warning, 

 and the deer call to and answer each other in the grass 

 coverts around the camp. It is a season of true enjoyment 

 to the lover of sport, who may now spear, gun, or rifle in 

 hand follow his game from seven or eight o'clock in the 

 morning, after a light repast, till sunset, without feeling the 

 heat at all, if he rest for an hour or two for the midday meal 

 in the shade of some tree or rock beside water, to allay the 

 thirst of his followers. By seven or eight in the evening- 

 he will enjoy his well-earned dinner, and by ten, after a pipe 

 or cigar, he should be asleep under two or three blankets, 

 outside a hot nightcap of his favourite brew, whatever that 

 may be. 



With February the only changes are a warmer air and 

 more clouded sky, and towards its close variable winds. 

 Hunting and shooting have improved ; a few of the lighter 

 jungles have been burnt ; game remains in good condition for 

 the table, but is wilder. Quail, which came in earlier in 

 Behar, are to be met with in abundance all over the country 

 in the green winter crops and low grass-fields bordering 

 them. In Upper Bengal, Behar, and Chota Nagpoor the 

 climate is perfect, and in the last-named province, in Midna- 

 poor and Bankurah, bears may now be sought successfully 

 in the rapidly thinning " sal " woods ; but not till March will 

 the heaviest jungles be cleared by fire, which the dry and 

 scorching west wind will drive in long lines of roaring flames 

 over miles of flat country overgrown with grass or reeds, or 

 up and down hill sides, destroying completely the under- 

 growth, and leaving the trees themselves charred and leafless. 

 The heat has sensibly increased ; ortolans have come in ; 

 birds are donning their nuptial plumage, and the woods are 

 musical with their notes. Snipe now congregate on such low- 



