258 BIG GAME SHOOTING \ 



\ 

 Assam and Burmah as far as the Malay Peninsula to the south- \ 

 east, wherever there are forest-clad hills. It does not ascend ] 

 to any great elevation, being rarely found above an altitude j 

 of 5,000 or 6,000 ft. It seems to delight in heat, not, indeed, \ 

 of the sun, as it is as careful of its complexion as a gooral, ' 

 but of hot stony hills and stifling ravines covered with thick j 

 forest. ' 



Sambur appear to require very little water, drinking, accord- j 

 ing to Sterndale, only every third day — a fact which the writer's j 

 experience entirely confirms. j 



The general colour of the stag is dark sepia, the chin and 

 inside of limbs yellowish-white, and an orange-yellow patch 

 on the buttocks. The dirty yellow patch on the chin is some- 

 times very striking, and looks as if the stag had the skin of 

 a pale orange in his mouth. The tail is large, the hair being 

 coarse and very dark brown ; and on the neck there is a shaggy |i 

 coarse ruff. The ears are large and coarse, rounded in shape, ; 

 nearly black, and almost hairless. Sterndale calls the sambur; 

 a noble creature, but compared with the Cashmere stag, reef' 

 deer, or wapiti, he looks an ugly, coarse, underbred brutel.^ 

 The horns are massive, with a long brow antler and a bifurcated j 

 top, and in good specimens are about 40 ins. in length || 

 longer horns are obtained occasionally, but not often. As thf'] 

 sambur is almost entirely nocturnal in its habits, it is moali 

 commonly shot in drives, and in many places it is almost inil 

 possible to obtain sambur otherwise ; but where it can be i 

 managed, stalking is, of course, far better fun. The sportsman i 

 should be on his ground just before daylight, and work slowly \ 

 through the forest at the edge of the feeding grounds, taking:! 

 the bottom of the hill if there are crops on the plain below, <) 

 • or, failing these, the edges of the open glades in the forest, j 

 Presently, if there are any sambur about, he will hear theirj 

 trumpet-like call, and, creeping on, see two or three dark forms;] 

 moving among the trees. In the grey of the morning it is- 

 often very hard to distinguish a stag from a hind, and the 

 writer has on several occasions had to wait after viewing tht 



