328 BIG GAME SHOOTING 



useful exercise to shut your eyes for a few seconds 

 and " pick him up " again an easy thing enough 

 if he be on the move, or moving any part of his 

 anatomy, but surprisingly difficult if he has changed 

 his position a little, and stands still again against a 

 new background, or amid a different arrangement of 

 light and shade. Perhaps it is unnecessary to remark 

 that any wild animal when it suspects the presence of 

 a foe stands perfectly still. 



Sambhur, thamin, and barking deer are alike in 

 one respect they leave the safe seclusion of the 

 jungle at night to feed along the margins of the 

 grassy glades, and where not disturbed have regularly- 

 used drinking-places. I have a vivid recollection of 

 one such drinking-place in a nameless spot on an 

 upper reach of the Salween. It was a pool left by 

 the monsoon floods in the sand under an amphi- 

 theatre of heavily-wooded hills, and the shallow beach 

 margin nearest the jungle was trodden by sambhur, 

 like a farm-yard by cattle ; some of the slots were 

 so large that the Karens with one consent fell to 

 measuring them with their ringers and making com- 

 parative estimates of the owners' size. Those com- 

 parative estimates, by the way, were all we were able 

 to make. On moonlight nights such watering-places 

 are much affected by Karen shikaries, who kill solely 

 for meat. It is not a legitimate form of sport, but 

 has lasting fascinations for anyone who enjoys study- 

 ing " wild life at home " ; and I recall without the 

 least regret opportunities foregone for the sake of 

 watching the proceedings of a band of sambhur. 



