392 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. VIII. 
In some jungles there are a good many burrows dug out by por- 
cupines. They have onlya single hole. I only once saw a porcupine 
out in the day-time, and that was early inthe morning. You generally 
make a start soon after dawn and walk about till lla.m. Long before 
that hour the deer have all lain down, and as it is supposed that there 
is not so good a chance of coming across them in the middle of the 
day, you stop till about 2 p.m. My own opinion is that, in this kind of 
shooting, the middle of the day is as good a time as any other, as they 
are bound to rise and bolt if you pass near where they lie; and, as I 
said before, in samber-stalking, nine times out of ten, you simply 
blunder on to the deer, but as both your men and yourself require 
breakfast and some rest, the middle of the day is a convenient time 
for the purpose. If one’s camp is near a river, one makes for the 
waterside in the early morning, on the chance of finding a stag 
feeding on the berries of the Ber (Z:zzyphus jujuba), a thorny bush 
that grows on the river banks, and the bright orange berry of which is 
a favourite food of beast and bird. At this early hour a chill mist is 
rising from the water, and as one appears on the top of the bank, 
a loud noise in the bushes makes one clutch the rifle ; but it is only a 
peacock that sails with outstretched wings across the river, Rising from 
a low level, he has not sufficient way on to carry him across 200 
yards and he touches the water, but a few strokes of the wing lifts him, 
and he lands on the opposite shore and scuttles up the bank. F locks 
of screaming parroquets are feeding on the Ber berries, and, as one 
proceeds, the peculiar whish of the green pigeon’s flight attract one’s 
attention to a score of these beautiful birds as they fly out from a tree 
in which you would never have seen them if they had sat still. 
Numerous nullahs stretch away from the river to the hills, and the 
best plan is to walk along the top of a nullah a few yards from it, 
occasionally going to the edge. Deer lying in the nullah then don’t 
see you until they hear you about opposite them. As you move along 
a loud bark and rush below you announce sambar, and you just catch 
sight for a moment ofa hide, and as they cross an open patch see a hind 
and calf. Even if it had been a stag the chances are you would not have 
got a shot. Many chances at stags are lost by not being able in the thick 
jungle to see his head until just as he disappears. If fortune is favour- 
able, you may get an easy shot as the sambar bolts up the opposite side 
