mature.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XVIII, Issue 1183, 26 September 1885, Page 6

mature.

flow Wolves Hunt.

Titb roliowing- curious incident ia related by Lard S iltouu, initiative of the tactics adopted by wolvca in ludia for securing lbs capture of their prey, " Wo had sighted," he esys, a small herd of antfel'jpo, and were about to try to get wi&hin ratige of them. '.* Too ground in front, and all around was ■'maidaun,' .'or' plain, .bui studded here and jherSLwUh small clumps and belts of thorny bushes, raosVof the former high enough to hide us. The antelope were feeding on the plain, LdLiad ike lfefi extremity of a narrow bslt of bushes that stretched across in front of U3 for a few hundred yards, and we had managed to get up to & email bushy clump about 150 or 200 yards from them when Young suddenly said — " • Stop Ibe quiet ; ' and then, after a long look, added, ' Well jou are in luck ; so short a time iv thi3 country, and yet about to Bee a sight I havo never myself ceen but onoe before, long as I've been at Shikar,' and then he painted cut to me, aboufc-five or six hundred yards to our right, and about as far from the right-hand extremity of the belt ol bushes as we were .from the left, & party of five large wolves, basily engaged in scraping a hole in the dry ground.

" Wa hid ourselves from their Bight, but watohed them, and presently saw four of them oome towards us ; the fifth had laid down in the hols they had dug. "About half way they again stopped and soratched a shallow hole ; and then but three came on, leaving their oompanion crouched in it. The three came right in front of the bush that concealed us, between us and the left end of the belt, and there, abput forty yards to our front, they made a third' shallow hole or depression on the surface, into whioh another of their party got. " The wind w&s blowing ftom out left front what tittle, there was ol it •, and the remaining two wolves, taking advantage of every little bush or slight inequality in the ground-that could afford them any shelter, proceeded to stalk up to the antelope round the left end of the bait, continuing their orawling approach until, having reached within twenty to thirty yard?, i» was evident that any further advance must give the wind to their destined prey, when they dashed at them full epeed, and though they did not succeed in seizing one, during the panio that ensued they forced a doe to fly down wind r with them close behind her. Breaking through the belt of bushes, her course led her diagonally across tho plain, somewhat in the direction of the ambueh farthest to the right, but rather wide of it. " When the wolf in that holo saw thi3 he sprang out, and, heading her, he turned her across or along the line of holas. She passed rather wide of the centre one, and iks ocoup&nt jumped up and followed close to her ; but she came so near thatin front of us as to enable the wolf in it to spring out and seize her.

" Before the rest could come up she struggled free, but he had torn her badly and lamed her, and she turned down past us, followed by the hungry crew. Aa she* came on, said Young, 1 She can't live, so you kill the doe and I'll take the biggest of these scoundrel,' and immediately the antelope and one of the wolves fell dead. '

"The others stopped, turned tail, and made off at their best pao9 ; we blazed our second barrels after them and wounded another, but not severely enough to stop him. It waa a yery interesting sight, and I could not help thinking that tho taotios of the wolves savoured as muoh of reason as of instinct. I had rather have got another of the wolves than the poor doe ; but she could not have lived, and it was mercy to kill her at once.