68 Incidents of Foreign Field Sport. 



bagged the only rhinoceros I ever killed in Burma. 

 But in Assam I killed a great many off elephants 

 and a few on foot. 



Jerdon says the height of the lesser rhinoceros is 

 only from three to three-and-a-half feet, but I have 

 killed them at least a foot higher. He was a very 

 clever naturalist, but most obstinate, and occasionally 

 quite wrong as to facts. Now, I mentioned to him 

 that the Tucktoo, a Gecko I had heard every day and 

 night of my life in Burma for thirteen years, was in 

 existence in Assam. He flatly contradicted me. So 

 the very next time I went to Burneyhat, the first 

 stage en route to Shillong, where I often heard them 

 uttering their cries, I got the natives to catch one for 

 me. This they did reluctantly, for they believe them 

 to be poisonous but what will not a wretched Assam- 

 ese do for a rupee or even a few annas ! so I took it 

 to Jerdon, who was staying with me in Gowhatty. 

 Again I told him that amongst many bears I had 

 killed in the province, one had been the ordinary 

 Ursus labiatus. He would have it that that was 

 impossible, but as the beast had been killed only a 

 short time before, and I had its skin, with the skull 

 attached so took it to him. Now the U. labiatus has 

 only four incisors in the upper jaw, whilst the Ursus 

 tibetanus has six. How that individual beast found 

 its way to the foot of the Himalayas, where I shot it, 

 I don't know, for the ordinary bear of the country is 

 Ursus tibetanus, though why so-called would be a 

 puzzle to most sportsmen, as it is not found in Thibet 

 at all ! 



General Sir Charles Eeld, G.C.B., of Delhi fame, 

 when shooting at Loqua Ghat with me, killed two 



