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buffaloes near Beeranpore. have every reason to believe, from the circumstance of their being found in large herds on the banks of the Taptee, that they are what the naturalist is pleased to call the gayal, a description of which is given in the following extract from his work. His views are corroborated by a letter in the Calcutta Journal dated January, 1822, as likewise by a letter in the Oriental Sporting Magazine, 5th April, 1829, under the head of "A Buffalo Hunt."

Extract from Baron Cuvier's work.

"In the place of the hump, the gayal has a sharp ridge, which commences on the hinder part of the neck, slopes gradually up till it comes over the shoulder joints, then runs horizontally almost a third part of the back, where it terminates with a very sudden slope. The height of this ridge makes the neck appear much depressed, and also adds greatly to the clumsiness of the chest, which, although narrow, is very deep; the sternum is covered by a continuation of the dewlap; the belly is protuberant, but in its

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hinder part is greatly contracted ;` the rump, or sacrum, has a more considerable declivity than that of the European ox, but less than that of the zebra. The tail is covered with short hair, except near the end, where it is tufted, but descends no lower than the knees. The legs, especially the fore ones, are thick and clumsy ; the false hoofs are much larger than those of the zebra; the hinder parts are weaker in proportion than the forehead, and owing to the construction of the belly, the hinder legs, although in fact the shortest, appear to be the longest.

"The whole body is covered with a coat of short hair. From the summit of the head there diverges, with a whirl, a bunch of rather long coarse hair, which lies flat, is usually white or lighter coloured than the rest, and extends towards the horns and over the forehead. The general colour is brown in various shades which very often approach to black, but sometimes is rather light; the legs and belly are usually white, as also the tip of the tail."

a

yesterday. Three of us went out on the report of some elephants being in the jungle. We had been in pursuit of some about a week before, and had shot or two without effect, and as the elephants always turned tail, I had no more fear in approaching them than I should in going up to a donkey. After much trouble, the wood being very thick, we came on a couple, one of which had been trumpeting and roaring all the morning, and the beaters declared he was "must."

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As soon as I saw them I ran ahead, thinking they would go up the hill and get away. One did so, but the other turned round when I was within ten paces, and I clapt a rifle within an inch of his luminary. The brute gave a yell I shall never forget, and charged back at the party, passing me, though the most forward. In spite of a discharge of twelve pieces, all within 15 yards, he held on, roaring like a mad devil, and, fixing his attention on white dress, blundered through the jungle after him. When he was within three paces turned, fired, and threw the gun at his head, at the same time bolting behind a tree; but the elephant at the same instant caught him with his trunk round the neck. I then struck him bang on the head, for which he did not seem to care a fig, for he laid down on the ground, knelt beside him, and butted at him with his head; but his tusks were so long that he could not strike

, lying as he was between them and his knees. The beast then got up, twisted his trunk about -'s body, and flung him three

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or four yards forward, with the intention of trampling on him: fortunately a spare gun was brought up, which was discharged and hit him in so tender a spot, that he staggered back and retreated. was thus enabled to get up, and can you believe it, was only bruised, though the brute had

trodden so near him as to tear the clothes, even to the shirt, off his loins.

This would be called an Indian tale. It was the work only of a few seconds; but had it taken an hour, I could not have had every fact more vividly present to my recollection. I cannot account for

's escape in any other way than that the severity of the elephant's wounds had made him. stupid. I have just heard a report of his death, and intend galloping out to take a look at him. The shikarrees declare that he is of the largest growth. He certainly appeared to me more like a large rock than a living beast. The rapidity of his charge astonished me, and the crash of the jungle that impeded his progress rings in my ears now."

I have lately read a book entitled "Sketches of India by Captain Mundy." It is evidently the work of a clever man and a sportsman-is very amusing-and I was much pleased with it; but I wish the author had seen a little hog-hunting on the hills before he wrote his account of that sport in Bengal. He says (vol. ii., page 75),

"The boars of the northern provinces are greatly inferior, both in size and courage, to those of Bengal; in the latter district these brutes will not bear much

driving, but turn round and come to the charge on the slightest provocation. The same halloo from the rider, which would only add wings to the flight of the lank northern hog, would be resented as an insult by the brawny Bengal boar, who is often in better condition for fighting than for fleeing."

This description of the Bengal boar exactly corresponds with our sugar-cane hog. I have frequently seen an old boar turn and charge before the nearest rider was within 30 yards of him, and

they are generally immense brawny monsters. But I imagine that their superiority in courage arises solely from their habits and condition. A sugar-cane boar has no distance to go for his food; he remains in the same field perhaps for months, has no confidence in his speed, and therefore trusts to fighting as his only resource. A hill-hog on the contrary, is always on the move, and where the ground is steep and stony, he knows he has a chance with his pursuers, trusts to his legs till he finds they are of no avail, and if he does not show so good a fight when brought to bay, it is because he is exhausted by the previous

run.

Capt. Mundy also talks about "consulting the expression of his backward eye" when a hog is about to charge. Now, I have been accustomed to hunt with men who would not consult the hog, or his eye, at all on the subject, but would spear him as soon as they could come up to him, whether he choose to charge or not. If the charge be properly received, the boar, however large, may be either stopped by having his spine broken, or so far prevented from doing mischief, that a roll on the ground with your horse on you is the worst that can happen; it is seldom that a horse is ripped except from carelessness on the part of the rider, or from the disagreeable accident of having a bad bamboo or a blunt spear. A steady heart and stout hand will generally stop the charge of any hog.

In the next page Capt. Mundy

who came to the attack in succession."

man

This would never do in the Deccan; an "experienced spearon a steady horse might with safety attack and spear a boar in the situation described, let him be as large and fierce as you please. But on this side of India, when the hog is in sight, the danger is never thought of for an instant; and if a boar had the temerity to place himself in such a situation, he would soon have either his death wound, or at any rate warning to quit. The first man might happen to be knocked over, as it is difficult to stop a hog's charge when you cannot turn your horse on either side, but his place would soon be supplied, and he is but a sorry specimen of a hog-hunter who would hesitate a moment. But there is one thing to be said: If you were obliged to throw your spear, such a situation would be rather awkward. Throwing is very well for the meidaun work, as it gives the hog a better chance, but it is not at all calculated for hills, and the hill hunting being in my opinion as superior to the other as fox-hunting to coursing, it is not worth while for a man to spoil his dexterity in handling his weapon by throwing in any country.

Again, our author says (page 77),

'Whilst an adept at the sport has taken the first spear at every hog and hardly put his horse out of a hand gallop."

Here is the meidaun work again. It would seem that, according to Capt. Mundy, experience in hog-hunting should only teach a man to ride cunning! but can this be called hog-hunting? A griffin is allowed to take several turns out of the boar, while the old hand quietly cuts off the turns, waits for his opportunity,

and spears him in a canter. How different is it over the stones, when a numerous field start to. gether after an old boar; riding gingerly will not do here; and nothing can exceed the anxious feeling when, with two or three good ones neck and neck with you, you are dashing over fearful places, which would be thought impossible in cold blood. On the hills a man must ride straight, fast, and well; both horse and rider must do their utmost, or they will never be in the right place. But supposing that cunning riding might give a man the spear (which in nine cases out of

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ten it will not), would he feel the same satisfaction as if he had ridden honestly? If so, he is no sportsman. In conclusion, I cannot at all agree with Capt. Mundy when he says, "To hog-hunting in Bengal the palm of sporting supremacy must certainly be adjudged." He apparently has never hunted on the hills; but for the real sport, one good run over the stones, with honest riders against you, is worth fifty hand gallops on the meidaun, though the game be a Bengal boar.

A DECCAN HOG-HUNTER.
Ahmednuggur, 12 April, 1833.

I wish that people who write on sporting subjects in the nineteenth century would call animals, at least such as are classed among the objects of a sportsman's pursuit, by their proper names.

In the pages of your magazine I find the words tiger, panther, leopard, and cheeta applied indiscriminately to designate the same animal. S. Y. S., who ought to know better, gives the two first names in one page to a panther. Why not call it a lion at once? A panther is not a tiger; the stripes as well as size of the latter separate him from all others of his genus. Another correspondent in your last number, writing evidently of a panther, calls it a leopard. I believe I am correct in stating that only one species, and that not a true leopard, has been discovered in India, viz. the Felis Jubatahunting leopard, or cheeta, The rose spot of the panther sufficiently distinguishes him from the leopard, whose marks are either single dots, as those of the hunt

ing cheeta, or clusters of dots, as found on the skin of the African leopard.

It is perhaps incorrect to call the cheeta a leopard, for his figure and habits, so different from those of the other cats, and his claws, only semi-retractile seem to separate him from that family, and make him the connecting link between the genus Felis and Canis.

Why do sportsmen continue to prefix the title of royal to the tiger? There certainly is a white, and, I think, a black variety found in this country, but it is not to distinguish the common tiger from these that the regal epithet is given, but to imply that a tiger and not a panther is meant. Why not say a royal bustard to distinguish it from a floriken? They are as nearly allied as the tiger and panther.

The bison found along the range of western Ghauts is generally described as a buffalo, although as distinct from a buffalo as that animal is from an ox. The samba, which does not bear the most dis

tant resemblance to an elk, is commonly mentioned under the latter name. There are no elk in India.*

I have even heard the axis, or spotted deer, called a samba, and the common antelope is daily misnamed and transformed into a deer-it is more nearly allied to the goat than deer, but it is neither.

Many will call me a pedantic prig for what I have written; here is my defence. You laugh

* I recollect an anecdote of a Scotch parson, upon being shown a lobster for the first time, by one of his parishioners as ignorant as himself. The clod wished Solomon to define its species, but the latter, unwilling to give a rash reply in so intricate a matter, applied to the Bible, and after a vain search came to the following sage conclusion, "It maun either be an elephant or a turtle dove, but which of the twa I canna preceesely say."

at a man who calls coursing foxhunting, or who talks of a flock of hog or a fox's tail-then if the charge of pedantry applies to me, I can retort on my opponents; but this is making a defence before I am accused-enough of it.

What would a dragsman think of the man who talked of bracing up a leader, or who called the terrets of the pad the rings of the saddle!

What would the sailor say if a landlubber who talked of a sheet, when he meant a sail; or the turfite of a spoon who fancies a dark horse means a black one; or a Meltonian if he heard of foxhunting with long tails?

I finish as I began-I wish people would call things by their proper names.

Вов.

SIR,

A party of Nuggur hunters left that place a few days ago for Curnullah-the rendezvous of the great annual picnic. At their first halting place-Merrichgaum -Duttoo had an immense boar marked down in a cane-field. He described him as a regular monster, and his death had been looked forward to for weeks with

"That stern joy which warriors feel, In foemen worthy of their steel."

On the arrival of the party at this place they found the regiment

encamped there on their march from Sholapoor to Baroda; but judge of the surprise, horror, and indignation of the gentlemen from Nuggur, on receiving a cordial welcome from the officers of the aforesaid regiment, winding up

with the information that the longtalked-of boar of Merrichgaum had been SHOT, and that they had had most splendid pork. The atrocious act was perpetrated in the following manner. Some gentlemen, out shooting doves, got intelligence of the hog, and going immediately to their tents, returned with some two hundred sepoys with their muskets, with whom they proceeded to beat the canes, and no sooner was the boar discovered, than a ball was neatly put through his heart, and he was borne in triumph to the tents.

Old Duttoo said that he had entreated them to wait until the arrival of the Nuggur gentlemen, but that he only got abused for his interference. The old man appeared quite disgusted, as well he might be, at being compelled