INDIAN JUNGLE STORIES.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 224, 21 September 1929, Page 3 (Supplement)

INDIAN JUNGLE STORIES.

A ZOO WITH NO CAGES. (By a. w. McMillan.) To-day sees the commencement of a most interesting series of articles about jungle life by one who has lived a number of years in Central India. The * many thrilling experiences quoted throughout the series are actual experiences of the author. PETER PAN. Peter Pan tells me his boys and girls would like to have some true stories about wild animals from one who has lived for several years in a Zoo that has no cages, and where the animals just go about and do as they like. I always delight in a visit to the Auckland Zoo, for it stirs up memories of many an adventure in the wild jungles of Central India, and I like to see the relatives of creatures that were once my neighhours. For instance, on the King's Birthday recently, I strolled up to the enclosure containing some Indian antelopes. They were quietly resting, sitting down, and taking no notice of anybody. Then I called to them after their own manner, and instantly they became attentive. They pricked up their ears, they stood erect, they looked over in my direction, the handsome buck with the fine spiral horns tossed his head, and it was really funny to see their surprise at hearing a call in their own familiar language. It is one of the finest sights imaginable to see a dozen or twenty of these Indian antelopes springing gracefully over bushes when they are on the run.

The cage containing Indian wolves reminded me of occasions when I have come face to face with such creatures. They go about in packs and are very fierce, so much so that they will even tackle a tiger. CJnlike the wolves in cold countries such as Russia, they rarely attack adult human beings in India, though they do so sometimes. One day an old man dragged himself along the ground to the front of my bungalow, all dusty and bloodstained. Wolveg had attacked him and had torn his throat open so badly that his breath, and food or water leaked through the gaping wound. I dressed his terrible wound for a week, and then took him to my friends at a Mission Hospital, where he was operated oil, and in a few weeks was quite recovered. , The sight of tigers brings to mind many incidents, and I hope to tell you several. For instance, I knew quite well a certain nimble aboriginal named Jai Singh. One night his mother awoke to see a glaring tiger about to maul Jai Singh. Though unarmed, she thrust a burning log into the animal's face, and thus saved her son's life. Was not that a brave thing to do? The leppards, too, reminded me of the days when I had such beautiful spotted creatures as my neighbours. I recollect catching with my hands a pretty little baby gazelle one evening, and she was a pet and a companion for me for the next eighteen months. I named lier Rani, or Queen. Well, the morning after I had found her, I went out for a stroll up the steep hill five minutes' walk from my mud house, and, halfway up the hill I paused to take breath. Just then a movement in the tree above me caused me to look up, and whatever do you think I saw? A great leopard! He was crouching on a branch, glaring at me. Just as he began to move down the branch, a light rustling in the grass drew my attention to the ground once more, and there I saw his mate standing within four or five yards of me. I quietly raised my gun and prepared to defend myself, staring first at one and then the other. When Mr. Spots had had a gbod look at me from above, fixing his great green eyes upon me, he jumped nimbly to the ground, whispered something to his mate, and they both quietly disappeared from view. Of course I let them go, for it would have been dangerous to molest them at such close quarters and standing on a steep stony hillside.

How some of our Auckland Scouts would -enjoy the thrill of living in a Zoo witli 110 cages. One morning at dawn, after sleeping on the ground in a lonesome forest, underneath my springless bullock-cart for protection from the dew, I was surprised to find that a bear had been digging for roots near me in the night. I have had skulking hyenas as neighbours. Huge "langur" monkeys witii black faces and sleek grey coats have often played in my garden. Camels and elephants hava passed along the Grand Trunk Road in front of my door. In dust or mud I have followed the tracks of wild boars, nilgai, blue bulls, and deer of various sorts, from little gazelles smaller than goats, to huge stags as large as horses. Peacocks have awakened me at dawn, and the night stillness has been disturbed by the snarl of the tiger, the rasping roar of the panther, the hideous howl of the jackals, the sharp barking of the fox, and the cry of the'deer. Yes, our Scouts would find it most interesting to live in Indian jungles, and I would have liked them to have gone with me to the house of Bhadu, a clever shikari or hunter. He had speared or shot fiftytwo tigers, about 170 panthers, leopards,, bears and hyenas, not to mention ferocious bison and boars, and deer. On one of my visits I saw the skulls of nine bison in a heap outside his house, dangerous animals that this fearless hunter had killed.

How would you like to live in a Zoo where you pay 110 admission charge, where there are no iron bars, where the animals choose their own feeding-times, select their own diet, and are free to come up to you and greet you with tooth, claw or horn? (To be continued.)