THE TEAK EEGION 203 



I followed across, thinking I miglit find blood, but there 

 was no sign, and I turned for home, swearing to expend 

 a bullet in future on every teak stump that bore the most 

 distant resemblance to a deer's head. The resemblance 

 is so very close between the two objects that I cannot but 

 think that the instinct of the animal leads him to dispose 

 of his head so as to resemble the bunch of teak. Even the 

 motion of the large ears of the sambar, which they restrain 

 only when actually in the presence of dangers, answers 

 exactly to the stirring of a dried teak leaf in a light breeze. 

 Indeed no one can hunt in these scantily covered hills 

 without wondering at the extreme diflB.culty of making 

 out such large animals as sambar, bison, and bears on the 

 open hill-side. The bison and bear precisely resemble 

 the large black trap boulders that thickly strew every 

 hill; and thus the glaring contrast of their black hides 

 with the bright yellow grass frequently attracts no attention 

 whatever. 



On my way back I knocked over a four-horned antelope 

 with very perfect horns, a long distance across a valley, 

 with the " Express." These little creatures are very 

 common in the hills we were hunting in, living solitary 

 or in small groups in all parts of the range. The female is 

 hornless, while the buck has four distinct sheathed horns. 

 The posterior pair are four or five inches long, and set upon 

 high pedicles covered with hair. The anterior pair are 

 generally mere knobs, and never exceed in length an inch 

 and three-fourths. In some specimens they are even 

 absent altogether. The animal is found throughout India, 

 and appears to be generally without the anterior horns in 

 the south. Here, in Central India, some have them and 

 some have not. I never could see any other difference 

 between them ; but it is not altogether certain that there 

 are not two distinct species. The preponderance of females 

 appears to be very great, quite as great as in the case of 

 the ordinary Indian antelope, though from their not 

 congregating in large herds, it is not so much observed. 

 To kill a buck at all is rare, and to kill one with four well- 

 developed horns is much rarer still. They seem to be very 

 retiring little creatures, never coming to the crops, and 



