1078 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXVIII. 
the east of Dhond average larger than those in the country on the Poona side, 
but this is from hearsay only. 
I always consider that, in proportion, the chinkara in this District have 
better heads than buck. Once, when shooting from Alandi, on the M. & S. M. 
Railway, I saw a chink which 1 put down to be well over 12 inches and another, 
which I put up once out of a nullah a little distance of the Sholapur Road when 
after partridge, was, I think, nearly as large. 
The biggest chink of all I have seen in these parts and which one would 
have been proud to have shot anywhere was one I saw off the old disused 
Poona-Bombay road which joins the present Bombay road somewhere about 
the nineteenth milestone. I spotted this chink one day when doing some 
exploring in the above direction and after a long and weary stalk under a mid- 
day sun got within a fair range and took my shot. To my delight he fell with 
hardly a struggle and my shikari and chokra who were watching from behind 
rushed up with shouts of glee to perform the necessary operations. To my 
disgust, however, just as they got within a few yards, the animal got up again 
and slowly made off in a direct line with the shikari so that I was unable to 
fire again. I followed as quickly as possible although he seemed to be going 
stronger every minute, but lost sight of him in some undulating ground and 
although I tracked him for a long way, eventually lost sight of his trail on some 
bare rocky ground and never saw him again. I went back to the spot where 
I had first fired but could find no trace of any blood. The bullet had evidently 
been high and must have either grazed his scull or one of his horns and tempo- 
rarily stuimed him. My remarks on this occasion had better be imagined than 
repeated ! I should not like to say what I put down his measurements to be, 
but it was certainly a better head than any I had got before up-country. 
Another little animal which cne comes across in some of the thicker 
jungles in the nallahs at the foot of the hills round about Poona is the four- 
horned antelope, locally termed “ bekri ” or “ bekr.” The fore horns however 
do not seem to develop in these parts. Both the heads that I have got, 
whilst having comparatively good posterior horns had merely an excrescence on 
the scull where the fore horns should have been and these were hardly notice- 
able until the scull was bare. 
In both cases I got these animals with a shot gun, when walking through 
thick jungles. 
The district round Poona also offers opportunities to the fisherman. The 
rivers Mula, Mula-Mutha, Indrayani and Bhima all hold Mahseer which can be 
caught occasionally with spoon, fly spoon, or small salmon-fly. I have never 
seen any large Mahseer in these rivers except in the Indrayani at Dehu in the 
pool opposite the temple, where, of course, one caimot fish. There is no objection 
to fishing a certain distance below, but I have heard that the large fish prefer 
to remain in their own special pool and are not to be enticed therefrom. I have 
never fished there myself. 
There is a belief among the local people that these fish, at a certain religious 
festival, held once a year, aU proceed some twelve miles down the river to Alandi, 
whence after being fed with appetizing morsels, they return again to Dehu 
when the festival is over. 
To what extent this fable is founded on fact I do not know, but I have 
been repeatedly assured by the inhabitants of both Dehu and Alandi that the 
fish do actually disappear from the former place at times and are seen at Alandi 
later, only to reappear shortly again at their former haunts. 
As regards the river fishing round Poona, I have done very little. Sir 
Charles Anderson, the late Army Commander, who was a very keen fisherman, 
used to catch a fair number, I believe, in the rivers near Poona with a small sal- 
mon-fly or fly spoon, but I do not think the size of the fish caught would average 
more than somewhere between two and four pounds. 
