This is a good ruse, but a still more cunning one is sometimes employed by the jackals of India—that is to say, they have been seen to employ it, for no doubt other jackals might act in the same way, under similar circumstances. In this instance a considerable number ranged themselves at intervals along a patch of jungle skirting the shores of a lake, and just within it, so as to be concealed. Here they quietly waited till, about midnight, by the light of the moon, a fine axis deer was seen to leave the jungle and advance over the narrow strip of foreshore which separated it from the water. Just before commencing to drink it turned and snuffed towards the jungle, but either the wind must have been in the right direction or its thirst overcame its caution, for turning again and stooping to the cool stream that lay white and still in the moonlight, it took a draught so deep and so long that it seemed as though it would never be ended. At last, however, it was satisfied, and walking back, swollen now and distended through the inordinate amount that it had swallowed, it was about to re-enter the jungle, when a jackal, springing with a yelp from its outer fringe, barred its further advance. The startled deer wheeled suddenly round, ran for some distance along the open space, and then again tried to enter the jungle, only to be again driven back by the same sharp yelp and spring, striking terror to its heart. A fresh attempt was frustrated in the same way, and being followed by a longer run, the deer now passed out of sight, but for a long time yelp succeeded yelp at irregular intervals, growing fainter and fainter till they were lost in the distance. The result of the ruse was not, therefore, in this instance witnessed, but in all probability it justified the sagacity of the jackals. Forced to keep running whilst its stomach was swollen with the water it had drunk, the deer must soon have become exhausted, and as little able to fight as to escape through speed—in which condition the pack would have closed upon it and pulled it down. But why were the jackals so anxious that the deer should not enter the jungle? Any obstacles which the thickness of the undergrowth might have offered to their own pursuit would, one would think, have been still more effective in checking the flight of their victim, in which case they ought to have been able to tire it out, and then pull it down all the sooner. Possibly, however, the axis, being an animal many times larger and stronger than themselves, might be able to plunge through covert which they would be unable to penetrate, or, again, it might have turned to bay under more favourable circumstances.