CHAPTER XXV 



THE SAMBUR (c. ARISTOTELIS) 



THIS is the largest of all deer, excepting the moose and the wapiti. 

 The stag stands about 13 hands at the shoulder, and weighs 

 when alive from 560 to 600 Ibs. I have weighed them both in 

 India and in Ceylon. The horns of this species vary to a great 

 degree, according to the localities which the deer inhabit. They 

 are not shed annually, but with great irregularity every third or 

 fourth year. This has been established as a fact by those which 

 have been for some years kept in confinement, and it is generally 

 accepted by all natives who are experienced shikaris. During 

 eight years' hunting in Ceylon, I killed a vast number of sambur 

 throughout all seasons, and there was no particular month when 

 the antlers were shed ; the deer were found with horns in every 

 stage of growth, irrespective of periods or localities. 



It is a curious fact that I never saw a stag sambur absolutely 

 without horns, although during seven years I was continually 

 hunting them with a pack of hounds. I have already mentioned 

 under the heading of " The Boar " the number that is written in 

 my diary kept at Newera Ellia in Ceylon from October 1851 to 

 March 1854. One hundred and thirty-eight sambur were killed 

 with the hounds and hunting-knife. It may safely be asserted 

 that we killed an average of sixty every year, which would yield 

 the large amount of four hundred and twenty during seven years. 



Allowing only four hundred as my personal experience of sambur 

 in Ceylon, where the hounds made no distinction of sex, but ran the 

 first scent they came across, it is very extraordinary that we never 

 found a stag which had so recently shed its horns that only the 

 base remained. 



They were constantly met when in velvet, sometimes only a few 

 inches in length, but never completely barren, to prove that the 

 antlers were only just discarded. 



