THE AXIS OK srOTTED DEER. 275 
which was underneath him. This stag was the one I had 
been after for the last two years. On one occasion I missed 
him ; on another he came over the hill with two hinds and a 
young stag when he did me " by crossing on the other side 
too far for a certain shot, 1 named him ''Sir Charles " after 
my friend Sir Charles Trevelyan. 
One of the most beautiful denizens of the Indian Forest 
is the Axis or Spotted Deer [Axis macuiala, Cervns axis). 
Ail Southern Indian sportsmen love the pursuit of these 
graceful "dappled beauties;" it leads them amongst some of 
the most characteristic scenery of hill and plain, as well as the 
bamboo jungles and their verdant glades, and although he 
cannot be compared with the lordly sambur as an object of 
sporty still there is a peculiar attraction in the glossy bright 
and spotted hide of the buck cheetul I first became 
acquainted with them in the Dandilly Forest in 1S44 and 
came across many a herd. We shot a fair number, but 1 
had the misfortune to lose a very grand buck. We had 
been out after bison, and had just crossed a nullah when 
we saw a large herd of spotted deer feeding a long way off. 
The shikarie told me to go on by myself which I did. There 
were some splendid bucks with the herd. When some thirty 
yards off, one of them with magnificent anders saw me ; 
fearing that he would give the alarm, I let drive at him, and 
down he came on his knees, but was up again and away with 
a broken thigh. I diished after him and came up to htm 
hobbling away very slowly, but before I could get another 
fair shot he had disappeared in the jungle, and although we 
tracked him for more than a mile I never saw him again. 
These deer are at times most difficult to see In the jungle. 
In this instance after giving up the wounded buck, the 
