Game Animals of India, etc. 



during the early morning and evening, reposing in the 

 daytime on some bleak hillside, where they can receive 

 timely warning of the approach of danger. As in the 

 case of other cattle, the old bulls are either solitary or 

 associate in small parties of three or four ; while the 

 herds, which in undisturbed districts may include from 

 about half-a-score to a hundred head, are formed by 

 the cows, young bulls, and calves. Yak will eat snow 

 during the winter, or at very high altitudes at all 

 seasons, when no other means of obtaining drink is avail- 

 able. Smell seems to be their most acute sense, hearing 

 and sight being apparently less keenly developed. 



Mr. Darrah has given the following account of a 

 stalk after yak : — " Lying flat down, and pushing the 

 Lee-Metford in front of me, I got behind a stone on 

 the summit, and saw a large number of yaks in front of 

 me, most of them some 250 to 350 yards off. It was 

 easy enough to make out the principal bull of the herd, 

 he was so much larger than the rest, but I could not 

 distinguish any others of a decent size, though I saw 

 two or three small ones. I lay where I was for some 

 ten minutes, trying to make out which to fire at after 

 the first shot at the big bull, but could not come to any 

 satisfactory conclusion. The animals were entirely 

 unconscious of danger ; some were lying down chewing 

 the cud, and some feeding quietly. The big bull was 

 sometimes grazing, sometimes looking about him, but 

 all the time moving more or less to the west, that is, to 

 my right and up the nalla. I did not like risking a 

 shot at the distance he was off, and examined the 

 ground to my right to see if there was any chance of 

 getting nearer." 



An opportunity for gaining a more favourable 

 situation presenting itself, the big bull was crippled at 

 the first shot, and soon afterwards dispatched. From 

 the fact of his being with the herd it would seem that 

 this stalk, which took place in August, was during the 

 pairing-season. 



82 



