228 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTRAL INDIA. 



sheltering tree. The Large stags do not seem to care 

 so much about shade, and generally lie on the side of 

 some little depression on a hill top, sheltered only by 

 lono- grass. Their forms can be readily distinguished 

 from those of the others by their greatly superior size. 

 These forms are generally made when the grass is green, 

 and are occupied at intervals all the rest of the year. 

 More than one herd and a few solitary stags will not 

 usually be found in the same tract of country ; but 

 in the rutting season they collect together in much 

 larger numbers on the tops of the high plateaux; and 

 the hoarse roar of the stags may then be heard echoing 

 far and wide in the silent night. When lying down 

 for the day, sambar, and particularly the solitary stags, 

 will frequently allow one to approach and pass them 

 quite close without getting up, trusting to conceal- 

 ment in the grass ; and it is really almost impossible 

 in many places for the sportsman on foot to see them 

 unless he actually stumbles on their forms. The hard, 

 yellow grass, while unburnt, leaves next to no trail of 

 the passage of a single deer, and thus the search for 

 sambar on foot after the hour when they lie down is 

 seldom very successful. 



If information can be got from the people who 

 frequent the jungles for wood-cutting, etc., of where- 

 abouts the sambar are feeding and resting at that par- 

 ticular season, capital sport can be got with them in the 

 day time with the aid of a riding elephant. This 

 enables you to see over the grass, and generally starts 

 any sambar that may be lying down within about a 

 hundred yards. The elephant must be thoroughly 

 trained to stop dead short on deer getting up, and 

 should not be furnished with a howdah, the simple pad or 



