THE TEAK BEGION. 221 



we turned him over and found my bullet hole on the other 

 side, just a little too high for the heart. It was a true enough 

 shot after all, and I was very glad when I measured by spans 

 his splendid horns, though sorry for the disappointment of a 

 brother sportsman. 



Though not a very large stag he was very old and rather 

 mangy, and had a perfect head with the usual three points 

 on each horn, and measuring from base to tip forty-one inches, 

 round the base ten inches, and eight and a half at the thinnest 

 part of the beam. I have never seen a larger head altogether 

 than this in Central India. It is figured at the end of the 

 present chapter. The horns of sambar vary greatly in deve- 

 lopment, some being very massive but short, and others very 

 long but slender. Keally good heads every way like this one 

 are the rare exception, and would not be seen once out of 

 perhaps fifty animals shot. About thirty to thirty-five inches 

 is the average length of the horns even of mature stags. 

 Occasionally more than three tines are seen on one or both 

 antlers ; but this is an abnormal development, and such 

 heads will generally be found of stunted growth and devoid 

 of symmetry. Sometimes the inner and sometimes the outer 

 tine of the terminal fork will be found the longer. 



I have taken much pains to assure myself of a fact, of 

 which I am now perfectly convinced, namely, that, neither in 

 the case of the sambar nor the spotted deer (both belonging 

 to the Asiatic group of Kusinse as distinguished from the 

 Cervidae or true stags), are the antlers regularly shed every 

 year in these Central Indian forests, as is the case with the 

 Cervidse in cold climates.* No native shikari, who is engaged 



* Probably on the higher hill ranges they shed them more regularly ; on the 

 Nilgherry hills I saw a number of stags in the month "of July, and none of 

 them had full grown horns. I may add here that but one species of this deer 



