MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 371 



large number of members who shoot would record their observations in the 

 jungle, materials would probably be forthcoming for an inductive chain of 

 reasoning on the subject of the breeding seasons of game. 



I was shooting with three friends in a jungle in East Khandesh which 

 abounds in Sambar and Chital. About the 20th of November, as I did not 

 know the jungle, and dislike to ask friends to shoot in a country where I do 

 not know my way about, I rode over and made the acquaintance of the local 

 shikaris. They proposed a beat. We had one drive, and I killed a Chital with 

 fair horns, to which were still adhering some sheds of velvet, but these, however, 

 were easily peeled off. I saw other stags, but none in velvet. The beaters 

 picked up a young Chital fawn only a few days old, which could not run, and 

 I have it as a pet. 



On December 24th our camps assembled, and we shot almost daily till 

 January 3rd. Only two Chital were bagged. One had horns quite clean of 

 velvet and the other was almost entirely in velvet. It was peeling only off 

 one brow antler, and the ends of the tines were still soft. I raised my rifle 

 once to shoot at a large stag which came quite close to me, and dropped it 

 again on seeing that he had young horns only half grown. In another beat 

 two stags went by with only one horn each, the others not being broken, but 

 clean gone. One fawn only born a few days, and unable to run, was picked up, 

 shown to me and released, and another was observed in a thicket where its dam 

 had left it. Other fawns of various sizes were seen. Four Sambar were shot, 

 all with clean horns and no signs of velvet, and many other stags were seen, but 

 none had velvet so far as could be observed. Such fawns as were seen were all 

 well grown and I should say about 6 or 8 months old. There were signs, how- 

 ever, on the trees that the Sambar had been scraping their horng not long ago, 

 which would seem to indicate that they have not long got rid of the velvet. 



The net results of observation of some hundreds of Chital and Sambar in the 

 same jungle would seem to be these : — 



November 20. — One Chital stag shot just finishing the shedding of velvet, 

 One Chital fawn picked up, only a few days old. 



December 24 — January 3. — One Chital stag shot in velvet, which he was 

 beginning to shed. One Chital stag observed with horns sprouting. Two 

 Chital stags observed, each of which had shed one horn. 



One Chital stag and many seen, with horns clean of velvet. Two newly born 

 Chital fawns observed. Many Chital fawns in various stages of growth observed. 

 Four Sambar stags shot, none having any velvet on their horns. Several 

 Sambar fawns observed, all of some months' growth. Signs on trees observed 

 of recent scraping of their horns by Sambar. 



The above are simply the facts as I observed them. If some scores of 

 similar sets of observations were collected, I fancy that from the date of the 

 stag's horns and the size of the fawns, the breeding season might be calculated 

 with fair accuracy. 



Bhusaval, dth January, 1905. A. H. A. SIMCOX, i.c.s. 



