112 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTRAL INDIA. 



in lying under trees seem more the concealment thus 

 afforded to their large and dark-coloured bodies than 

 shelter from the sun, as the shade is seldom dense, and 

 a secure windy position is always secured irrespective of 

 the sun. I have observed that single animals always lie 

 looking down wind, leaving the up wind direction to be 

 guarded by their keen sense of smell ; and, in my 

 experience, it is far easier to baffle their sense of vision 

 in a direct approach, than to stalk them down wind, 

 however carefully the approach may be covered. It is 

 extraordinary how difficult it often is to distinguish so 

 strongly coloured an object as a bull bison when thus 

 lying down in the flickering shadow of a tree. 



The colour of the cows is a light chestnut brown in 

 the cold weather, becoming darker as the season 

 advances. The young bulls are a deeper tint of the 

 same colour, becoming, however, much darker as they 

 advance in aQ;e, the mature bull beins; almost black on 

 the back and sides, and showing a rich chestnut shade 

 only on the lower parts of the body and inside of the 

 thierhs. The colour of both bulls and cows varies a G;ood 

 deal in difierent localities. The lightest coloured are 

 those of the open grass jungles in the west, the darkest 

 those of the deep bamboo forests of Puchmurree and the 

 oast. The white stockin2;s, which are so characteristic a 

 marking of this species, also change with advancing age, 

 assuming a much dingier colour in the old bulls. A 

 singular change also occurs in the growth of the horns, 

 which w^ill be well illustrated by the accompanying 

 plate of a photographed series belonging to bulls of 

 different ages shot in the same locality (Nimiir). No. 1 

 belonged to a young chestnut-coloured bull of about five 

 years old. Its shape, it will be seen, approximates to 



