Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 2 (1898).djvu/195

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This is found here and there in India, but is unknown in Ceylon. It is most common in Eastern Africa, more so than in India. They are more plentiful in Oude and Upper India than in Southern India; and I never saw but one, and that I was lucky enough to shoot, in the wild state. It is not found in Assam or Burma. I have seen many in captivity. We had a couple when I was a child. They are largely used by native rajahs and other personages to pull down wild Antelope, but it is not an exciting sport. When slipped from the cart, in which he is carried as near to a herd of Antelope as possible without frightening them off, he first cautiously walks towards his quarry, and with bristles erect. When the Antelopes perceive him, and he is within one hundred or even one hundred and fifty yards of them, he rushes at them with incredible speed, and if he overtakes one, as he generally does, within that distance, he fastens on its throat. If he fails to reach within that space, his wind being exhausted, he desists, and walks about in a towering rage, but soon allows his attendants to blindfold him, and to put him back on the cart. If he kills, the shikarie fills a saucer full of blood, and whilst the Leopard is lapping it up, he is hooded and led back. His call is a bleat-like mew. If taken as cubs, the natives assert they are useless for the chase. Only the adult ones who have been trained by their parents to hunt are of any use in a domesticated state. I never heard of their breeding in confinement in India; but I believe an instance or two has occurred in the large zoological establishments on the continent. None have bred in our "Zoo." The young, when born, are covered with soft brown hair, without spots, which is curious, as even the young of the Lion and Puma are distinctly marked with spots, which disappear in time. It is capable of domestication; Dr. Jerdon, the naturalist, had one that followed him about like a Dog, and was always sportive and frolicsome. Chitahs in a wild state, if wounded, will turn to bay and fight to the death.

Of the Bears of India, the Isabelline, or Brown Bear, of the Himalayas (Ursus tibetanus), which is allied to the Syrian Bears, is found in the Terai along the foot of the Bhootan