268 BIG GAME SHOOTING 



partial to swampy ground. These deer graze in the mornings and 

 evenings in the open valley, chiefly along the smaller streams, and 

 by springs where the grass is green, and rest during the day about 

 the skirts of the Sdl forest. A favourite midday resort is in the 

 shade of the clumps of S^l dotted about the open plain, at some 

 distance from the heavy forest. They are not nearly so nocturnal 

 in habits as the sdmbar, 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 sdmbar. 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 sdmbar. I 

 have never heard of their visiting cultivated tracts like the latter ; 

 nor can I learn that their apparent adherence to the Sdl forest is 

 due to their employing any part of that tree as food. 



XXVI. BROW-ANTLERED OR ELD'S DEER 

 {Rucervus vel Panolia Eldii) 



Native names : ' Thaminy • Sungrai ' 



This variety of swamp deer is found chiefly in Burmah, but \ 



extends from Munipur to the Malay Peninsula. Its habits are, { 



as above noted, the same as those of the swamp deer, but it is ' 



rather differently coloured, being, according to Sterndale, ' of a i 

 light rufous brown with a few faint indications of white spots, 



the under parts and insides of the ears nearly white, the tail ' 

 short and black above. It is said to become darker in winter 

 instead of lighter, as in the swamp deer.' 



The horns, however, are very unlike the swamp deer's. The i 



brow antler and beam, instead of forming an angle, are in one j 



continuous curve, like the section of a circle, the burr being j 



small and hardly seen. In rear of the top of the beam there is | 



a short snag, which Sterndale calls the royal tine, and on the ji 



front of the top of the beam, which is rather flattened, instead \\ 



of regular tines like those on a swamp deer's head, there is a {: 



collection of what look like false points. In a head in the :i| 



British Museum the left horn has thirteen of these little snags jj 

 and the right fourteen. 



In Upper Burmah, Eld's deer are scarce, and the only way ; \ 



