504 Mammatia oF INDIA. 
type. In size it is considerably larger than the red deer, and, though its 
horns are not so elegant, it is in its /owt ensembde quite as striking an 
animal. In colour it is dark brown, somewhat slaty in summer; the 
chin, inside of limbs and tail, and a patch on the buttocks yellowish or 
orange yellow. The head of the sambar is very fine; the eye large and 
full, with immense eye-pits, which can be almost reversed or greatly 
dilated during excitement. The ears are large and bell-shaped, and 
the throat surrounded by a shaggy mane—truly a noble creature. ‘The 
female and young are lighter. 
Size.—A large stag will stand 14 hands at the withers, the length of 
the body being from 6 to 7 feet ; tail about a foot; ears 7 to 8 inches. 
The average size of horns is about 2 feet, Dut some are occasionally 
found over 40 inches. Jerdon says: “some are recorded 4 feet along 
the curvature ; the basal antler 10 to 12 inches or more.” A very fine 
pair, with skull, in my own collection, which I value much, show the 
following measurements: right horn, 45 inches; ieft horn, 43 inches ; 
brow ant'er from burr to tip, 18+ inches circumference ; just above the 
burr, 9 inches ; circumference half-way up the beam, 7¢ inches. On 
the right horn underneath the tres-tine is an abnormal snag 9g inches. 
long. ‘The left horn has an indication of a similar branch, there being 
a small point, which I have no doubt would have been more fully 
developed had the animal lived another year. 
I have had no experience of deer-shooting in the regions inhabited 
by the Kashmir and Sikim stags, which are approximate to our 
English red deer; but no sportsman need wish for a nobler quarry 
than a fine male sambar. 
As I write visions of the past rise before me—of dewy mornings ere 
the sun was up; the fresh breeze at daybreak, and the waking cry of 
the koel and peacock, or the call of the painted partridge; then, as we 
move cautiously through the jungle that skirts the foot of the rocky 
range of hills, how the heart bounds when, stepping behind a sheltering 
bush, we watch the noble stag coming leisurely up the slope! How 
grand he looks !—with his proud carriage and shaggy, massive neck, 
sauntering slowly up the rise, stopping now and then to cull a berry, or 
to scratch his sides with his wide, sweeping antlers, looming large and 
almost black through the morning mists, which have deepened his dark 
brown hide, reminding one of Landseer’s picture of ‘The Challenge.’ 
Stalking sambar is by far the most enjoyable and sportsmanlike way of 
killing them, but more are shot in da¢tues, or over water when they come 
down to drink. According to. native shikaris the sambar drinks only 
every third day, whereas the nylgao drinks daily ; and this tallies with 
my Own experience—in places where sambar were scarce I have found 
a better chance of getting one over water when the footprints were 
about a couple of days old. An exciting way of hunting this animal is 
