272 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST, SOCIETY, Vol, XXVIII, 
they creep about very quietly, hardly showing themselves at all. One little 
one we put up was in such a hurry that he didn’t look where he was going—put 
~ his foot in a tuft and went head over heels, much to the amusement of the mahouts. 
The para stag’s horns all seemed to be in different stages. Some were in velvet, 
some fully grown and one that I shot appeared to have dropped one horn. 
Para get their name of Hog-deer from their habit of creeping about with their 
heads down I suppose, though anything more unlike a pig I have seldom seen. 
Two babies were brought to me when I got back to camp, a buck and a doe. 
The doe was smaller, had rather a longer face and was not quite such a bright 
brown as the buck. Both were spotted something like a cheetal or Spotted 
Deer but without the white stripe along the side and with brown legs instead 
of white. Neither could have been much more than a week old and both were 
very tottery on their legs. It was rather a puzzle to know howto teed them, 
but, remembering how I had once brought upa little Markhor successfully, I 
tried the same dodge. I took a small sponge, wrapped it in a handkerchief, then 
dipped it in warm milk and water. They refused at first to have anything to 
do with it, but with patience and perseverance I succeeded in making them 
take alittle. The doe, which was much the quietest, picked up the idea quite 
quickly but the other was most difficult to manage. I fed them once or 
twice during the next few nights, and tried to quiet them. but they were very 
restless. Once they must have smelt a panther because both started up in 
evident panic and the peacocks all started ,giving the alarm and I thought I 
heard one talking far away. 
They had a terrible journey up here (Khatmandu) poor little things, 8 hours on 
an elephant, 36 hours in a train, a day in a Ford over the most appalling bumps, 
and a day on coolie. That, and the change of temperature, was too much for 
the little doe—she died during the first night. ‘‘ Wee-Wun ”’ missed her sadly 
and bleated continuously at first but got over it in a day or two. The bleat was 
not like that of a sheep or goat—more a drawn out squeak—often he would 
squeak and seemed to want to make it longer, leaving his mouth open but 
nothing happened. The full grown deer has a call something like the cheetal. 
By this time he drank his goat’s milk out of a saucer and would take it without 
any bother. Diluted cow’s milk didn’t suit him at all though he quite liked it. 
He was loose in the garden all day and would totter about on his little wobbly 
legs right on the very tips of his toes. Even now he never seems to stand down 
on his hind feet, he only uses the very tips. In a week or so he began taking 
interest .in leaves and would nibble at a leaf in an absent minded sort of way, 
then stop and stare far away. Leaves seemed to attract him much more than 
grass, which seems curious, as he came from a grass country and I believe para 
are not browsers as a rule. He must have been about a month old before he 
discovered that clover was most excellent. I had tried to induce him to eat it 
for same time by picking it in front of him. He had been in the house with us 
most of the day because it had been raining, then when we went out he suddenly 
rushed at a tuft of clover and started eating as hard as he could. From that 
day he made rapid progress in the grass eating line and I reduced his milk. 
He is very tame and up till a week or so ago would follow me wherever I went, 
and always lying down in the heat of the day, or when he got tired, in the rose 
beds close to the house. From the very first he showed an inclination to get 
amongst cover of some sort and was much happier creeping about, head low and 
ears laid flat, in and out of the bushes, starting at imaginary alarms then quietly 
going on again, than out in the open on a lawn. Now however he is much more 
independent, preferring to go exploring all by himself and choosing new lying 
down places. He is a most secret little fellow and hates to be seen lying down ; 
if by any chance, when I’m hunting for him I come across him in his nest he 
will never go to that spot again, though if I call him and he leaves his nest with- 
out my actually seeing him in it, he will go there again and again till it is dis- 
covered, 
