THE CHITAL 
(CERVUS AXIS ) 
HE chital has a considerable range throughout the forest 
districts of India, and extends to Ceylon, where, as is to be 
expected, the horns are smaller. 
The body is spotted from birth till old age, and the skins are 
worth preserving as they make nice floor mats. The antlers 
are of the regular Rusa type and seldom have more than three 
points on each; they seem to be shed more irregularly than with other 
species of Indian deer. 
Chital run in fairly big herds and require careful stalking. The first I 
ever shot in the Central Provinces gave an instance of the “ shock,” or 
rather the want of it, produced by a bullet from a heavy weapon. 
I was carrying a black -powder # 577 rifle when we came on a stag standing 
apparently asleep under a tree. He was broadside on and not thirty yards 
away when the bullet caught him fair in the middle of the shoulder. As it 
remained well mushroomed under the skin on the further side, he must 
have got the full force of it. One would imagine that an unexpected blow 
like this would have knocked the deer head over heels, but instead of this 
he remained absolutely steady for a moment, and then gradually sank down 
dead. I found afterwards he must have been very sick at the time, as 
he carried the marks of a recent severe mauling by a leopard, which 
accounted for his apparent apathy. 
91 
