THE WAINAAD FOREST. 107 



length of its tail I thought it was a young leopard, and immediately 

 gave chase, when the animal ran up a tree, and in another moment 

 my rifle bx*ought down a fine old gray monkey, the Madras langur 

 {Semnopithecus leucoprymus). The report started a whole troop 

 of the same species wbich had been feeding quietly in an adjoining 

 tree, and away they went at a great rate, galloping through the 

 tree-tops a little faster than I could nin on the gi'ound below. But 

 one of the monkeys could not resist the temptation to stop and have 

 a look at me, a very common habit with monkeys generally, and a 

 moment later he, too, was tumbling to the ground. The largest 

 monkey of this species which I obtained in the Wainaad measured 

 as follows : length of head and body 23 inches, tail 37. I also shot 

 a Malabar squirrel [S. Malabaricus), one of the handsomest of all 

 the Sciuridce, and also one of the largest.* 



By the time I had prepared the skins of my three specimens the 

 ponies arrived and we stai-ted for the Mudumallay Karkhana, or 

 headquarters of the forest officers, six miles from Tippecadu. The 

 Aillage, which consists of about twenty huts, built of mud or of split 

 bamboos woven together, stands upon the bank of a filthy, stagnant 

 pond or " tank," a genuine cholera genei'atorin fact, for it furnishes 

 the sole water-supply of the village. The year before our visit the 

 village had been nearly depopulated by cholera and fever, many 

 dying, while the rest fled for their lives. There is a good bungalow 

 here belonging to the forest department, quite vacant when we ar- 

 lived, but owing to ignorance on my part, and lack of management 

 on that of my companion, we had not obtained at Ooty permission 

 to occupy it during our stay, and so we were obHged to go farther, 

 and fare worse. Having come to hunt bison, we went on two and a 

 half miles beyond the Karkhana to the vei*y centre of the best game 

 district, and camped near the house of a well-to-do old native, named 

 Courti Chetty. 



The natives inhabiting the Mudumallay forest, forest officers, and 

 all, are certainly the meanest and most disobliging lot I met any- 

 where in the East Indies. As soon as they found we had come 

 among them without any " backing " from the government au- 

 thorities, or without any kind of tangible power over them, they be- 

 came most insolent and disobliging. First of all we saw the hand 

 of the government writer, Eamasawmy, in charge of the Karkhana 

 and its affairs. While we were making our camp, a forest peon 



♦ See Table of Measurements of S. I. Mammals, Appendix. 



