CREATURES OF THE WILDERNESS 89 



every year like our European deer, but some- 

 times carries them for two or three seasons. 

 All manner of explanations of this curious 

 habit have been suggested, but no one really 

 knows the reason. It is just guesswork. In 

 colour, the sambur is light brown when young. 

 The hind, indeed, retains the lighter colour 

 throughout life, but the stag grows gradually 

 darker, till old stags are nearly black. When 

 angry or alarmed, this deer has a singular trick 

 of making the hair on its back and neck stand 

 on end, as ours is supposed to do when we see 

 ghosts. The sambur is a child of the jungle, 

 hating the glare of the Indian sun and hiding 

 away all day in the cool bamboo glades. Like 

 many other deer, it feeds up in hilly country, 

 climbing to a height of fully eight thousand feet 

 above sea-level. It is less suspicious than most 

 of its tribe, and often, indeed, offers an easy shot 

 because of the silly curiosity with which, instead 

 of taking to its heels, it will stand and stare at 

 the intruder. It is also less thirsty than other 

 of the jungle-folk, and is found at times some 

 distance from water. The majority of wild 

 animals, on the other hand, are sought by 

 sportsmen in the neighbourhood of river-banks 

 and waterholes, and native hunters in both India 

 and Africa do much damage by sitting up on 

 moonlight nights, close to well-known drinking 

 places, and blazing away at everything that 



