KAVINE DEER AND BLACK BUCK HUNTING. 75 



the animal was not to be seen, and after a long search fsr him we 

 had to give up beaten. It was utterly impossible to track him over 

 that hard and barren clay. We heard two shots from Major Eoss, 

 and on looking in his direction saw two nil-gai climb out of the 

 ravines and go galloping off across the uplands. They went at 

 a heavj', lumbering pace, more like the running of cows than ante- 

 lopes. The Hindoos, with a total disregard for natural classifica- 

 tioD, assert that this animal is a ' cow ' and not an antelope, and 

 therefore a very sacred animal. They will not touch the nil-gai, 

 but will eat all other antelopes. 



" It had been our rule to return to camp about ten o'clock every 

 morning, and rest quietly during the midday heat, which in the 

 ravines was intense ; but in the hope of finding nil-gai we pushed 

 on and on in a wide circuit far into the ravines. While walking 

 quietly down the bed of a ravine we espied two gazelles browsing 

 upon the scanty leaves of an acacia. Both were does, and I fii-ed 

 at the nearest one. They wheeled and bounded out of sight, and 

 upon running forward we found the grass bespattered with ar- 

 terial blood which had gushed out from a mortal wound. We 

 started at once on the bloody trail and soon found the doe lying 

 gasping under a bush. (This was the female which possessed un- 

 usually long horns, mentioned in a former paragraph.) Within 

 twenty minutes from the time we saw her browsing quietly under 

 the acacia, her skin was hanging across Wazir's rifle and the vul- 

 tures were teai-ing at her flesh. Then I turned my face toward 

 camp. Passing through a village we rested, drank quantities of 

 water and ate some roasted gram, which is about as good as pai'ched 

 corn. Within a mile of camp we met a horse coming for me, and a 

 hvely gallop soon brought me to the tents. Major Ross had shot 

 a fine buck gazeUe and a cow nil-gai, which were soon brought in 

 upon a cart. The intense heat of the sun had quite roasted the skin 

 on the side that was uppermost, so that its elasticity was gone for- 

 ever. This animal was of an iron-gray color, without horns, and 

 about the size of the female wapiti {Cervus Canadensis). After 

 coming in from a hunt, we always took a bath the first thing and 

 drained all the jars of drinking-water. ' Give us this day our daily 

 bath,' is the universal cry in India. 



" ' Tiffin ' over (two o'clock dinner), Carlo and I fell to work on 

 our specimens, and before night the ' bag ' received an addition of 

 one saras crane, three spoonbills (Platalea leucorodia), and three 

 black-backed geese (Sarcidiornis melanonotus), shot by my friends." 



