38 JO URNAL, BOMB A 7 NA TURAL HISTOR Y SOCIETY, Vol. IX. 



sniffing the air, and listening with his huge ears, making up his 

 mind for a further advance when the beaters should approach too 

 near. Should the sportsman, under such circumstances, seeing the 

 beaters close up, and imagining that all is over, move even an eyelid, 

 the wary beast is off with a plunge and a crash, either back through 

 the line of beaters, or down hill to turn their flank, sometimes giving 

 the occupants of the less-sought-for posts below a chance of a shot. 

 Another moment or two of motionless silence, and the occupant of the 

 post at the arri would have had an easy shot at the huge deer as he 

 walked delicately, like Agag, along the well-known path, or quietly 

 scrambled up the rocky defile to the top. All the other animals come 

 along with much less concern or concealment ; only the sambar stag 

 is thus cautious. In such a beat the pea-fowl, spur-fowl and such like 

 always lead the way ; next come the wild sow and her litter, and 

 perhaps a rattling porcupine; a shuffling bear may give you a chance if 

 you are for him ; a blue bull, or a rare spotted deer, may come next ; 

 but the wily sportsman will do well to let the line come right up to 

 his post before he dares to breath aloud, if his aim be the lordly sambar. 



The bears of these parts are the common Indian sloth bear 

 ( U. labiatus\ and their coats are so open and coarse that they yield but 

 poor trophies. They do such a lot of damage, however, and are so 

 dangerous to the people who have to frequent these forests, that as a 

 rule it is right never to spare one. In my experience the people fear 

 a bear here much more than a tiger. 



In the outer Himalayas the stalking is much easier than in the 

 Vindhyas or Kaimurs. The undergrowth is more manageable and 

 less diffused, and the pine needles make a noiseless carpet. The sambar 

 is here locally known as Jarao. The head is of a different shape and 

 make from that of the Central India sambar ; more rugose, heavier 

 and more massive in proportion to the length ; but the antlers are not 

 so long nor so graceful. They sometimes shew ' sports ' on top. It is 

 many years since I had any sambar stalking in the interior of these 

 hills, but my recollection is that the Jarao are not nearly so wary there 

 as their congeners are in the Kaimur and Vindhya hills. In the foot- 

 hills of the Himalayas the Jarao are very numerous, and I have stalked 

 and shot four stags before breakfast, within five or six miles of my 

 camp at the outer foot of the mountains. I once shot a Sardo 

 (Nemorliadus bubalinus) in the same hills — a rare beast. In the sal 

 and other forests lying in the submontane plains below the N.-W. P. 

 Himalayas the sambar is locally known as Mdha, i.e., big, great. 



