46 FOREST LIFE AND SPORT IN INDIA 
resume mastership and to check the amorous pranks 
of the youngsters. They are gone, and you are per- 
haps happier that you have for a time been a partner 
in the intimate life of the forest, and maybe you will 
not regret your reticence; for when the stillness of 
the forest night broods over your tent you may 
hear the danger-cries of the herd, the sharp whistle 
of the doe and the, hoarser alarm-cry of the stag, 
and next morning, visiting the spot, you may 
perhaps trace out on the ground the history of 
a jungle outrage, and set yourself to the more 
difficult task of meeting the midnight assassin face 
to face. 
When in charge of the Kheri Division, I once shot 
in the six weeks preceding the middle of June forty 
stags with heads that no sportsman need be ashamed 
of—the largest being 38 inches in length—all by 
fair stalking, unattended and on foot, in the forest 
near Duduaghat. The bag might have been quad- 
rupled if trophies had been no object. In these days 
the sportsman would be fortunate if he got four 
really good heads in the same time ; for, in the first 
place, the deer have been decimated by the ever- 
increasing population, so that now it has become 
necessary to limit on a licence the number that may 
be shot in one area ; and, secondly, they have become 
much more nocturnal in their habits : they leave the 
tree-forest after dark, and re-enter it before dawn, 
and a noiseless approach in the forest is impossible 
to man or elephant. A curious shot made at this 
time remains in my memory. I pulled the trigger 
just as a fine stag was scratching his face with a 
hind-hoof; the bullet passed through his fetlock, 
