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 

 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 

 forest. 



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

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

 experience entirely confirms. 



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 

 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, red 

 deer, or wapiti, he looks an ugly, coarse, underbred brute. 

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

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

 longer horns are obtained occasionally, but not often. As the 

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

 commonly shot in drives, and in many places it is almost im- 

 possible to obtain sambur otherwise; but where it can be 

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

 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. 

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

 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 the 



