52 JO URN A L, BOMB A 7 NA TURAL HISTOR 7 SOCIETY, Vol. X. 



as I have remarked before, heard one bellowing. When a bull starts 

 to charge he generally gives a loud snort, and this is rather useful as 

 it attracts your attention to the spot he is coming from. When tracking 

 a wounded bull it is necessary to remember that he 'may take a turn and 

 lie in wait for you on one side of what appears to be his route. Once 

 a bull I had wounded let me pass him and charged me from behind. 



Buffalo have no fear of approaching the villages. They come to 

 the village tanks to drink. In the hot weather one sleeps in the open, 

 and twice when 1 woke in the morning I found that a solitary bull had, 

 during the night when I was fast asleep, passed close to my bed, to drink 

 at the tank on the banks of which my tent was pitched. Another morn- 

 ing at dawn as I opened my eyes they fell on a large herd of upwards 

 of twenty buffalo crossing the village fields, three hundred yards off'. 

 I went after them at once just as I was, but they fled before I could get 

 near the bull. When 1 resumed operations, after returning to my 

 tent, to get clothed and have the morning meal, the herd 

 split into two portions and after a time the bull left the herd. He went 

 a very long way and 1 did not see him till the afternoon when he got up 

 close to and ran away, and I did not come up to him again, so I never 

 fired a shot at him. What looked like a certainty in the morning 

 resulted in complete failure. During the rains, when the crops are 

 growing, the buffalo sally forth into them and do a lot of damage and 

 are with difSculty driven away. I am told they charge sometimes on 

 these occasions, and I saw a native who had had a horn driven through 

 his jaw and cheek by a bull he was trying to frighten away from the 

 crops. Nielghai are often seen feeding along with a herd of buffalo. On 

 one occasion I was in some long grass in the middle of a herd trying 

 to find the bull, when a fine stag swamp deer jumped up at my feet 

 and made off'. I missed him, and was nearly run over by the herd 

 bolting, Buff'alo produce their calves in March, April, and May, and 

 I believe at other times of the year also. 



One of the charms of buffalo tracking is that you get shots at other 

 animals as well. Tiger, bear, bison, samber, swamp deer, cheetul, 

 nielghai, four-horned antelope have all been shot by me when so 

 engaged. I have also seen panther, but missed them. There are 

 few places where bison and buffalo can be shot on the same 

 ground. I have been lucky enough to kill them on the same day. 



