THE SAL FORESTS. 3S9 



long, but have a very handsome outward sweep, which 

 renders them, I think, more efifective as a trophy for the 

 deerstalker. They are very diflBcult to procure fully 

 developed and perfect. They are cast more regularly, 

 I think, than those of the Rusinoe ; and as the stags 

 seem to be very combative, some of the points are 

 usually broken off soon after they lose the velvet at the 

 close of the rainy season, when their haunts first become 

 accessible to the sportsman. In form the Rucervus is 

 one of the most beautiful of the family — lightly and 

 gracefully made, and with a stately carriage ; and alto- 

 gether, with his splendid golden colour and finely- 

 shaped antlers, this stag is not surpassed, I think, iu 

 appearance, by any member of the deer tribe. 



This animal has been called in north-eastern India 

 the " swamp deer," but here he is not observed to be 

 particularly partial to swampy ground. They graze in 

 the mornings and evenings, chiefly along the smaller 

 streams, and by springs, where the grass is green, in the 

 open valleys, and rest during the day about the skirts 

 of the sal forest. A favourite midday resort is in the 

 shade of the clumps of sal dotted about the open plain, 

 at some distance from the heavy forest. They are not 

 nearly so nocturnal in habits as the sambar, being often 

 found out grazing late in the forenoon, and again early 

 in the afternoon ; and I do not think they wander 

 about all night like the sambar. Their midday rest is 

 usually of a few hours only, but during that time they 

 conceal themselves in the grass much after the manner 

 of the sambar. I have never heard of their visiting 

 cultivated tracts, like the latter ; nor can I learn that 

 their apparent adherence to the sal forest is due to their 

 employing any part of that tree as food. 



In the middle of the day the red deer (so they 



