16G JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XIV. 



I interfered, I think I should have fared badly, especially as I am sure the 

 dogs had never seen a Feringhee before. When the rally was over T gral- 

 loched the buck and threw the whole of the viscera to the dogs, to 

 reward them for their assistaoce, and for the interesting piece of sport they 

 had shown me. 



These eheep dogs of the Deccan, the Ceded districts and the adjacent 

 province of Mysore, are all of the same class, chiefly red in colour, a few 

 black and tan, and a very few ;quite black. Many of the red ones are 

 feathered on the ears, tail and down the forelegs, and there are many quite 

 smooth, like the ordinary red pariah. 



It is not all about sheep dogs, however, that I am writing ; I wish to say a 

 word or two on behalf of the common dog of the country, the unjustly des- 

 pised Pariah. I don't mean the Mongrel that one sees about Indian towns 

 and cantonments but the true Indian Pariah Dog, mostly red in colour. 



That we have neglected this animal as a faithful companion, good watch 

 dog, and an excellent assistant in many field sports, there is no doubt, though 

 it is not strange that we should have done so, as sportsmen are a conservative 

 body, many of whom consider that there is nothing good in the sporting line 

 out of England. But of the good qualities of the true Pariah, as I have to 

 call him, I have seen many instances. Notably when passing the hot weather 

 months on the Ramandroog Hills, not quite 40 miles from Bellary, I found 

 there were sixteen men of a tribe called " Bender" in the village below mj 

 camp who used to hunt with their dogs which were of the same class as I 

 have described the true breed of country dog from which the sheep dogs 

 are taken. 



These sixteen men had a pack of eight dogs. Each man was armed with 

 a spear, a small axe, and a knife. In addition to these, he carried a flint and 

 steel, and tinder in his pouch. I am writing of a time years ago, when there 

 was a fair head of game on this small range of hills, consisting of tigers, 

 panthers and leopards, many sambur, pigs, &c. These Benders used to turn 

 out for a hunt regularly twice a week, their game being always sambur, and 

 in those times it was not long before the pack of eight were in full chase of 

 a stag or hind. I never saw these dogs lose a sambur once. When they 

 found they stuck staunchly to their quarry, and the end was always the 

 same, stag, or hind, at bay, either against a rock, or in a pool of water, the 

 pack laying around, and the Sambur slain at last by the spears of the Benders 

 exactly, from start to finish as is described by Sir Samuel Baker in his des- 

 cription of Sambur hunting with hounds, in his Book " The Rifle and Hound 

 in Ceylon." 



1 am not writing a sporting article but I am endeavouring to show the good 

 qualities of the Indian dog. Sometimes these same " Benders" used to hunt 

 hares in the grassy plains below the hills. Assisted by their eight dogs (all 

 red ones) and armed only with their throwing sticks, a curved hardwood stick 



