k, mallard, and teal, can
frequently be found, and the rushes round the margin are to a certainty
good for a couple of brace of snipe.

Sometimes on a withered branch overhanging the stream, you can see
perched the _ahur_, or great black fish-hawk. It has a grating,
discordant cry, which it utters at intervals as it sits pluming its
black feathers above the pool. The dark ibis and the ubiquitous
paddy-bird are of course also found here; and where the land is low and
marshy, and the stream crawls along through several channels, you are
sure to come across a couple of red-headed _sarus_, serpent birds, a
crane, and a solitary heron. The _moosahernee_ is a black and white
bird, I fancy a sort of ibis, and is good eating. The _dokahur_ is
another fine big bird, black body and white wings, and as its name
(derived from _dokha_, a shell) implies, it is the shell-gatherer, or
snail-eater, and gives good shooting.

When you have determined to beat the forest, you first get your coolies
and villagers assembled, and send them some mile or two miles ahead,
under charge of some of the head men, to beat the jungle towards you,
while you look out for a likely spot, shady, concealed, and cool, where
you wait with your guns till the game is driven up to you. The whole
arrangements are generally made, of course under your own supervision,
by your _Shekarry_, or gamekeeper, as I suppose you might call him. He
is generally a thin, wiry, silent man, well versed in all the lore of
the woods, acquainted with the name, appearance, and habits of every
bird and beast in the forest. He knows their haunts and when they are
to be found at home. He will track a wounded deer like a bloodhound,
and can tell the signs and almost impalpable evidences of an animal's
whereabouts, the knowledge of which goes to make up the genuine hunter.

When all is still around, and only the distant shouts of the beaters
fall faintly at intervals on the ear, his keen hearing detects the
light patter of hoof or paw on the crisp, withered leaves. His
hawk-like glance can pick out from the deepest shade the sleek coat or
hide of the leopard or the deer; and even before the animal has come in
sight, his senses tell him whether it is young or old, whether it is
alarmed, or walking in blind confidence. In fact, I have known a good
shekarry tell you exactly what animal is coming, whether bear, leopard,
fox, deer, pig, or monkey.

The best shekarry I ever had was a Nepaule