NATURALIST IN INDIA. 95 



Indian frontier their numbers are never so great as to recom- 

 pense one who expects good shooting at little bodily exertion ; 

 but the sportsman prepared for a rough scramble over rock 

 and fell cannot betake himseK to a better and more stirring 

 amusement than shooting chukore on the lower Himalayan 

 ranges. 



On the I7th of March the snow stiU lay thick and hard in 

 the sheltered parts of the Chor mountains, especially among the 

 oak and pine forests ; while in the more open glades, among 

 the stunted bamboo jungles, we had to flounder knee-deep 

 through beds of rotten melting snow, around the margin of 

 which peeped up the beautiful pink and purple primroses — the 

 advanced guards of spring ; and no great distance down the 

 mountain the apricot and apple-trees were in full bloom. The 

 difference in the temperature of the two regions was well marked 

 — above, an arctic winter was but just ending; below, spring 

 had fairly set in. We observed among the snow foot-trail of 

 bears and large deer — either the Cashmere or Duvaucell's deer 

 {Gervus cashmere7isis or dv/Daucelli'i) ; and the sharp-pointed and 

 characteristic footprints of the musk-deer [Moschus moscMferus) 

 were plentiful. I wounded one, but the little creature escaped 

 and hid itself in the impervious bamboo jungle. The custouree, 

 as it is called, frequents the lower and forest ranges, as high 

 as the stunted birch on the limits of arboreal vegetation, and 

 confines of snow, from 10,000 to 12,000 feet above the sea-level. 

 There it often remains until driven down by the approaching 

 winter, for beneath the naked boughs and pale trunks of the 

 birch it delights to dwell, nibbling a scanty fare from the moss- 

 clad bank, or along the sward stiU damp with snow-water. 

 Seldom is its solitude disturbed, for to these situations the leo- 

 pard rarely ascends ; and save the startling call of the cuckoo, 

 there is nought to disquiet it in this bare inhospitable region. 



