22 FOREST LIFE AND SPORT IN INDIA 
often heard, but seldom seen ; they are timid beasts, 
and shy of appearing in the open, but both they and 
the monkeys give the surest warning of the where- 
abouts of the great carnivora. 
Amongst this profusion of animal life it was in- 
evitable that the tiger and panther should lead a 
regal existence, and at this time it was only by the 
young tiger, killing for the love of slaughter in the 
joyous strength of his youth, or by those past their 
prime who found it less trouble, that the cattle of 
the graziers or the buffaloes from the timber-carts 
were molested. 
Outside the forest, the nilgai, the wild-boar, and 
the Indian antelope, were in such numbers that they 
disputed the harvest with the cultivators. On the 
lowlands duck abounded in the numerous shallow 
lakes, so that often the sound of the rising wild-fowl 
resembled the rumbling of distant thunder through 
the still night ; while of other game there were two 
kinds of florican; the black, the grey, and the 
swamp partridge; peafowl, hares, and red jungle- 
fowl, innumerable ; and occasionally, especially in 
areas affected by the four-horned antelope, spur-fowl 
were seen. Wild-elephants had ceased to cross from 
' Nepal, though the frequency of abandoned pitfalls 
in the forest testified to their recent presence ; it is 
probable that they deserted these forests as soon as 
the tree-jungle had, by its shade-giving properties, 
ousted the bamboo, and thus deprived these animals 
of a favourite kind of fodder. 
It was natural that a youth, fresh from the pur- 
suit of the red-deer, roe, and wild-boar in the Hartz 
Mountains, where a part of the professional training 
