396 JOURNAL, B02IBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, 1892. 



of the most famous sportsmen of modern days told the present writer 

 that he had shot seventeen Black-buck in a week, and that the heada 

 were hardly worth keeping. He had better have used his field glass 

 more, and his rifle less. The meat was not wasted ; but the region 

 could well have spared as many does ; whose meat would have been 

 better. In this matter, as in some others, we need, as Dr. 

 Johnson said, — " to clear our minds of cant ;" that is, of the use of 

 mere stock phrases as if they embodied principles. 



To return to our Sanibar ; he is now almost extinct in the Kon- 

 kan and Deccan proper, and the queer Akadi or " frog" for suspend- 

 ing the universal bill-hook of the forest tribes is now, if made of 

 Sambar horn, treasured as an heirloom ; and hard to come by to 

 the curio hunter. Along the crest of the central Sahyadris ; and 

 still more inKhandesh, Kanara, and a part of Woodland Gujarat the 

 race is stronger and more numerous. Its development in the Central 

 provinces has been dealt with by another member in these pages. 



If the Sambar is of our noblest, the Ohital is perhaps our most 

 beautiful beast ; for in grace he equals the Black-buck, and though his 

 colours are scarcely so brilliant as those of several Felidce, he has a 

 charm of expression unattainable by a cat. The horns too are more 

 regular and elegant than those of the Sambar ; or of any many-tined 

 stag. He is also a beast of taste; and always frames himself, if 

 allowed, in our best forest scenery ; green-wood with a water fore- 

 ground and mountain back-ground. It is pleasant to find that Mr. 

 Blanford simplifies his title to plain " Cervus axis.'" He gives no 

 Maratha name, but " Ohital" is good Maratha as well as Hindustani. 

 There is a place in this presidency where the present writer has seen 

 (he believes) and spared over a hundred and fifty spotted deer of a 

 morning ; preserving the beautiful herds as much as he could. But 

 in the Konkan and in most of our districts, it is almost an extinct 

 animal ; being, indeed, a very easy one to approach or drive, and so 

 soft that it has been killed with a charge of JN^o. 6 shot about the 

 neck. The hours of feeding and drinking vary with the amount of 

 human or bovine interference rather more than Mr. Blanford seems 

 to think ; but his account is not only generally accurate but very 

 readable ; the interest attaching to this lovely creature having lured 

 him out of his dogmatic compression. 



