ROBIN

I NEVER saw either of his parents. The Knight of the Broom
I purchased him from said he was a spaniel, that his name
was Pincha, and that his father was a 'keen gun dog*. This
is all I can tell you about his pedigree.

I did not want a pup, and it was quite by accident that I
happened to be with a friend when the litter of seven was
decanted from a very filthy basket for her inspection. Pincha
was the smallest and the thinnest of the litter, and it was
quite evident he had reached the last ditch in his fight for
survival. Leaving his little less miserable brothers and sisters,
he walked once round me, and then curled himself up between
my big feet. When I picked him up and put him inside my
coat it was a bitterly cold morning he tried to show his
gratitude by licking my face, and I tried to show him I was
not aware of his appalling stench.

He was rising three months then, and I bought him for fifteen
rupees. He is rising thirteen years now, and all the gold in
India would not buy him.

30 Man-eaters of Kumaon

When I got him home and he had made his first acquain-
tance with a square meal, warm water and soap, we scrapped
his kennel name of Pincha and rechristened him Robin, in
memory of a faithful old collie who had saved my young
brother, aged four, and myself, aged six, from the attack of an
infuriated she-bear.

Robin responded to regular meals as parched land does to
rain, and after he had been with us for a few weeks, acting on
the principle that a boy's and a pup's training cannot be started
too early, I took him out one morning, intending to get a little
away from him and fire a shot or two to get him used to the
sound of gunfire.

At the lower end of our estate there are some dense thorn
bushes, and while I was skirting round them a peafowl got
up, and forgetting all about Robin, who was following at heel,
I brought the bird fluttering down. It landed in the thorn
bushes and Robin dashed in after it. The bushes were too thick
and thorny for me to enter them, so I ran round to the far side
where beyond the bushes was open ground, and beyond that
again heavy tree and grass jungle which I knew the wounded
bird would make for. The open ground was flooded with
morning sunlight, and if I had been armed with a movie
camera I should have had an opportunity of securing a unique
picture. The peafowl, an old hen, with neck feathers stuck
out at right angles, and one wing broken, was making for the
tree jungle, while Robin, with stern to the ground, was hanging
on to her tail and being dragged along. Running forward I
very foolishly caught the bird by the neck and lifted it clear
of the ground, whereon it promptly lashed out with both legs,
and sent Robin heels-over-head. In a second he was up and on
his feet again, and when I laid the dead bird down, he danced
round it making little dabs alternately at its head and tail. The
lesson was over for that morning, and as we returned home it
would have been difficult to say which of us was the more

Robin 31

proud Robin, at bringing home his first bird, or I, at having
picked a winner out of a filthy basket. The shooting season
was now drawing to a close, and for the next few days Robin
was not given anything larger than quail, doves and an occa-
sional partridge to retrieve.

We spent the summer on the hills, and on our annual migra-
tion to the foothills in November, at the end of a long fifteen-
mile march as we turned a sharp corner, one of a big troop
of langurs jumped off the hillside and crossed the road a few
inches in front of Robin's nose. Disregarding my whistle, Robin
dashed down the khudside after the langur, which promptly
sought safety in a tree. The ground was open with a few trees
here and there, and after going steeply down for thirty or forty
yards flattened out for a few yards, before going sharply down
into the valley below. On the right-hand side of this flat ground
there were a few bushes, with a deep channel scoured out by
rain-water running through them. Robin had hardly entered
these bushes when he was out again, and with ears laid back and
tail tucked in was running for dear life, with an enormous leo-
pard bounding after him and gaining on him at every bound. I
was unarmed and all the assistance I could render was to ' Ho '
and ' Har ' at the full extent of my lungs. The men carrying M.'s
dandy joined in lustily, the pandemonium reaching its climax
when the hundred or more langurs added their alarm-calls in
varying keys. For twenty-five or thirty yards the desperate and
unequal race continued, and just as the leopard was within reach
of Robin, it unaccountably swerved and disappeared into the
valley, while Robin circled round a shoulder of the hill and
rejoined us on the road. Two very useful lessons Robin learned
from his hairbreadth escape, which he never in after-life forgot.
First, that it was dangerous to chase langurs, and second that
the alarm-call of a langur denoted the presence of a leopard.

Robin resumed his training where it had been interrupted in
spring, but it soon became apparent that his early neglect and

32 Man-eaters of Kutnaon

starvation had affected his heart, for he fainted now after the
least exertion.

There is nothing more disappointing, for a gun dog than to
be teft at home when his master goes out, and as bird-shooting
was now taboo for Robin, I started taking him with me when
I went out after big game. He took to this new form of sport
as readily as a duck takes to water, and from then on has
accompanied me whenever I have been out with a rifle.

The .method we employ is to go out early in the morning,
pick up the tracks of a leopard or tiger, and follow them. When
the pug marks can be seen, I do the tracking, and when the
animal we are after takes to the jungle, Robin does the tracking.
In this way we have on occasions followed an animal for miles
before coming up with it.

When shooting on foo't, it is very much easier to kill an
animal outright than when shooting down on it from a machan,
or from the back of an elephant. For one thing, when wounded
animals have to be followed up on foot, chance shots are not
indulged in, and for another, the vital parts are more accessible
when shooting on the same level as the animal than when shoot-
ing down on it. However, even after exercising the greatest care
over the shot, I have sometimes only wounded leopards and
tigers, who have rampaged round before being quietened by
a second or third shot, and only once during all the years that
we have shot together has Robin left me in a tight corner.
When he rejoined me after his brief absence that day, we decided
that the incident was closed and would never be referred to
again, but we are older now and possibly less sensitive, anyway
Robin who has exceeded the canine equivalent of three-score-
years-and-ten, and who , lies at my feet as I write, on a bed he
will never again leave has with a smile from his wise brown
eyes and a wag of his small stump of a tail given me permission
to go ahead and tell you the story.

We did not see the leopard until it stepped clear of the

Berko

Berko

'An area of i ,r )( x> square miles oi mountain and vale
where the snow lies deep during winter, and the

valleys are seoiehing hot in summer ' Sec p. 41

See p. 29

ROBIN BRINGING HOMI THF BACHELOR

See p.

Robin 3t

thick undergrowth and, coming to a stand, looked back'.OV^I
its left shoulder.

He was an outsized male with a beautiful dark glossy coat,
the rosettes on his skin standing out like clear-cut designs on
a rich velvet ground. I had an unhurried shot with an accurate
rifle at his right shoulder, at the short range of fifteen yards.
By how little I missed his heart makes no matter, and while
the bullet was kicking up the dust fifty yards away he was
high in the air, and, turning a somersault, landed in the thick
undergrowth he had a minute before left. For twenty, forty,
fifty yards we heard him crashing through the cover, and then
the sound ceased as abruptly as it had begun. This sudden
cessation of sound could be accounted for in two ways: either
the leopard had collapsed and died in his tracks, or fifty yards
away he had reached open ground.

We had walked 'far that day; the sun was near setting and!
we were still four miles from home. This part of the jungle
was not frequented by man, and there was not one chance in
a million of anyone passing that way by night, and last, and
the best reason of all for leaving the leopard, M. was unaaroed
and could neither be left alone nor taken along to follow .up
the wounded animal so we turned to the north and made for
home. There was no need for me to mark the spot, for I had
walked through these jungles by day and often by night for
near on half a century, and could have found my way blind-*
fold to any part of them.

Night had only just given place to day the following morn-
ing when Robin who had not been with us the previous
evening and I arrived at the spot I had fired, from. Very
warily Robin, who was leading, examined the ground where
the leopard had stood, and then raising his head and snuffing
the air he advanced to the edge of the undergrowth, where
the leopard in falling had left great splashes of blood. There
was no need for me to examine the blood to determine the

34 Man-eaters of Kumaon

position of the wound, for at the short range I had fired at I
had seen the bullet strike, And the spurt of dust on the far side
was proof that the bullet had gone right through the leopard's
body.

It might be necessary later on to follow up the blood trail >
but just at present a little rest after our four-mile walk in the
dark would do no harm, and might on the other hand prove
of great value to us. The sun was near rising, and at that
early hour of the morning all the jungle folk were on the move,
and it would be advisable to hear what they had to say on the
subject of the wounded animal before going further.

Under a nearby tree I found a diy spot to which the saturat-
ing dew had not penetrated, and with Robin stretched out at my
feet had finished my cigarette when a chital hind, and then a
second and a third, started calling some sixty yards to our left
front. Robin sat up and slowly turning his head looked at me,
and, on catching my eye, as slowly turned back in the direction
of the calling deer. He had travelled far along the road of
experience since that day he had first heard the alarm-call of
a langur, and he knew now as did every bird and animal within
hearing that the chital were warning the jungle folk of the
presence of a leopard.

From the manner in which the chital were calling it was
evident that the leopard was in full view of them. A little more
patience and they would tell us if he was alive. They had
been calling for about five minutes when suddenly, and all
together, they called once and again, and then settled down to
their regular call; the leopard was alive and had moved, and
was now quiet again. All that we needed to know now was
the position of the leopard, and this information we could get
by stalking the chital.

Moving down-wind for fifty yards we entered the thick
undergrowth, and started to stalk the deer not a difficult task,
for Robin can move through any jungle as silently as a cat,

Robin gfi

and long practice has taught me where to place -my feet.
The chital were not visible until we wer$ within a few feet
of them. They were standing in the open and looking towards
the north in the exact direction, as far as I was able to judge,
in which the crashing sound of the evening before had
ceased.

Up to this point the chital had been of great help to us; they
had told us the leopard was lying out in the open and that it
was alive, and they had now given us the direction. It had
taken us the best part of an hour to acquire this information,
and if the chital now caught sight of us and warned the jungle
folk of our presence, they would in one second undo the good
they had so far done. I was debating whether it would be
better to retrace our steps and work down below the calling deer
and try to get a shot from behind them, or move them from our
vicinity by giving the call of a leopard, when one of the hinds
turned her head and looked straight into my face. Next second,
with a cry of ' Ware man ', they dashed away at top speed. I
had only about five yards to cover to reach the open ground,
but quick as I was the leopard was quicker, and I was only in
time to see his hind quarters and tail disappearing behind some
bushes. The chital had very effectively spoilt my chance of a
shot, and the leopard would now have to be located and marked
down all over again this time by Robin.

I stood on the open ground for some minutes, to give the
leopard time to settle down and the scent he had left in his
passage to blow past us, and then took Robin due west across
the track of the wind, which was blowing from the north.
We had gone about sixty or seventy yards when Robin, who
was leading, stopped and turned to face into the wind. Robin
is mute in the jungles, and has a wonderful control over his
nerves. There is one nerve, however, running down the back
of his hind legs, which he cannot control when he is looking at
a leopard, or when the scent of a leopard is warm and strong.

S6 Man-eaters of Kumaon

This nerve was now twitching, and agitating the long hair on
the upper part of his hind legs.

A very violent cyclonic storm had struck this part of the
forest the previous summer, uprooting a number of trees; it
was towards one of these fallen trees, forty yards from where
we were standing, that Robin was now looking. The branches
were towards us, and on either side of the trunk there were
light bushes and a few scattered tufts of short grass.

At any other time Robin and I would have made straight
for our quarry; but on this occasion a little extra caution was
advisable. Not only were we dealing with an animal who
when wounded knows no fear, but in addition we were deal-
ing with a leopard who had had fifteen hours in which to nurse
his grievance against man, and who could in consequence be
counted on to have all his fighting instincts thoroughly aroused.

When leaving home that morning I had picked up the
.275 rifle I had used the previous evening. A good rifle to
carry when miles have to be covered, but not the weapon one
would select to deal with a wounded leopard; so instead of a
direct approach, I picked a line that would take us fifteen yards
from, and parallel to, the fallen tree. Step by step, Robin lead-
ing, we moved along this line, and had passed the branches and
were opposite the trunk when Robin stopped. Taking the
direction from him, I presently saw what had attracted his
attention the tip of the leopard's tail slowly raised, and as
slowly lowered the warning a leopard invariably gives before
charging. Pivoting to the right on my heels, I had just got
the rifle to my shoulder when the leopard burst through the
intervening bushes and sprang at us. My bullet, fired more
with the object of deflecting him than with any hope of killing
or even hitting him, passed under his belly and went through
the fleshy part of his left thigh. The crack of the rifle, more
than the wound, had the effect of deflecting the leopard suffi-
ciently to make him pass my right shoulder without touching

Robin 37

me, and before I could get in another shot, he disappeared into
the bushes beyond.

Robin had not moved from my feet, and together we now
examined the ground the leopard had passed over. Blood we
found in plenty, but whether it had come from the old wounds
torn open by the leopard's violent exertions, or from my recent
shot, it was impossible to say. Anyway it made no difference
to Robin, who without a moment's hesitation took up the trail.
After going through some very heavy cover we came on knee-
high undergrowth, and had proceeded about a couple of hundred
yards when I saw the leopard get up in front of us, and before
I could get the rifle to bear on him, he disappeared under a
lantana bush. This bush with its branches resting on the
ground was as big as a cottage tent, and in addition to afford-
ing the leopard ideal cover gave him all the advantages for
launching his next attack.

Robin and I had come very well out of our morning's
adventure and it would have been foolish now, armed as I
was, to pursue the leopard further, so without more ado we
turned about and made for home.

Next morning we were back on the ground. From a very
early hour Robin had been agitating to make a start, and,
ignoring all the interesting smells the jungle holds in the morn-
ing, would have made me do the four miles at a run had that
been possible.

I had armed myself with a 450/400, and was in consequence
feeling much happier than I had done the previous day. When
we were several hundred yards from the lantana bush, I made
Robin slow down and advance cautiously, for it is never safe
to assume that a wounded animal will be found where it has
been left hours previously, as the following^regrettable incident
shows.

A sportsman of my acquaintance wounded a tiger one after-
noon, and followed the blood trail for several miles along a

38 Man-eaters of Kumaon-

valley. Next morning, accompanied by a number of men, one
of whom was carrying his empty rifle and leading the way,
he set out intending to take up the tracking where he had left
off. His way led over the previous day's blood trail, and while
still a mile from the spot where the tiger had been left, the
leading man, who incidentally was the local shikari, walked
on to the wounded tiger and was killed. The rest of the party
escaped, some by climbing trees and others by showing a clean
pair of heels.

I had marked the exact position of the lantana bush, and
now took Robin along a line that would pass a few yards on
the lee side of it. Robin knew all that was worth knowing
about this method of locating the position of an animal by
cutting across the wind, and we had only gone a short dis-
tance, and were still a hundred yards from the bush, when he
stopped, turned and faced into the wind, and communicated
to me that he could smell the leopard. As on the previous day,
he was facing a fallen tree which was lying along the edge of,
and parallel to, the thick undergrowth through which we had
followed the leopard to the lantana bush after he had charged
us. On our side of the tree the ground was open, but on the
far side there was a dense growth of waist-high basonta bushes.
Having signalled to Robin to carry on along our original line,
we went past the lantana bush, in which he showed no interest,
to a channel washed out by rain-water. Here, removing my
coat, I filled it with as many stones as the stitches would hold,
and with this improvised sack slung over my shoulder returned
to the open ground near the tree.

Resuming my coat, and holding the rifle ready for instant
use, I took up a position fifteen yards from the tree and started
throwing the stones, first on to the tree and then into the bushes
on the far side of it with the object of making the leopard
assuming he was still alive charge on to the open ground where
I could deal with him. When all my ammunition was exhausted

Robin, 89

I coughed, clapped my hands, and shouted, and neither during
the bombardment nor after it did the leopard move or make
any sound to indicate that he was alive.

I should now have been justified in walking straight up to
the tree and looking on the far side of it, but remembering an
old jungle saying, ' It is never safe to assume that a leopard is
dead until it has been skinned ' , I set out to circle round the
tree, intending to reduce the size of the circle until I could
see right under the branches and along the whole length of the
trunk. I made the radius of the first circle about twenty-five
yards, and had gone two-thirds of the way round when Robin
stopped. As I looked down to see what had attracted his
attention, there was a succession of deep-throated, angry grunts,
and the leopard made straight for us. All I could see was the
undergrowth being violently agitated 'in a direct line towards
us, and I only just had time to swing half right and bring the
rifle up, when the head and shoulders of the leopard appeared
out of the bushes a few feet away.

The leopard's spring and my shot were simultaneous, and
side-stepping to the left and leaning back as far as I could I fired
the second barrel from my hip into his side as he passed me.

When a wounded animal, be he leopard or tiger, makes a
headlong charge and fails to contact he invariably carries on
and does not return to the attack until he is again disturbed.

I had side-stepped to the left to avoid crushing Robin, and
when I looked down for him now, he was nowhere to be seen.
For the first time in all the years we had hunted together we
had parted company in a tight corner, and he was now probably
trying to find his way home, with very little chance of being
able to avoid the many dangers that lay before him in the
intervening four miles of jungle. Added to the natural dangers
he would have to face in a jungle with which, owing to its
remoteness from home, he was not familiar, was the weak
condition of his heart. And it was therefore with very great

4Q Man-eaters of Kumaon

misgivings that I turned about to go in search of him; as I did
so, I caught sight of his head projecting from behind a tree
trunk at the edge of a small clearing only a hundred yards away.
When I raised my hand and beckoned, he disappeared into the
undergrowth, but a little later, with drooped eyes and drooping
ears, he crept silently to my feet. Laying down the rifle 1
picked him up in my arms and, for the second time in his life,
he licked my face telling me as he did so, with little throaty
sounds, how glad he was to find me unhurt, and how terribly
ashamed he was of himself for having parted company from me.

Our reactions to the sudden and quite unexpected danger
that had confronted us were typical of how a canine and a
human being act in an emergency, when the danger that threa-
tens is heard, and not seen. In Robin's case it had impelled
him to seek safety in sil'ent and rapid retreat; whereas in my
case it had the effect of gluing my feet to the ground and
making retreat rapid or otherwise impossible.

When I had satisfied Robin that he was not to blame for
our temporary separation, and his small body had stopped
trembling, I put him down and together we walked up to where
the leopard, who had put up such a game fight, and had so
nearly won the last round, was lying dead.

I have told you the story, and while I have been telling it
Robin the biggest-hearted and the most faithful friend man
ever had has gone to the Happy Hunting Grounds, where I
know I shall find him waiting for me.