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 Sal forest. A favourite midday resort is in the 

 shade of the clumps of Sal 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 sa"mbar. 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 sa"mbar. I 

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

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

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



XXVI. BROW-ANTLERED OR ELD'S DEER 

 (Rncervus vel Panolia Eldii) 



Native names : ' ThaininJ ' Swigrai ' 



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 

 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 

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

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

 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 

 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 

 British Museum the left horn has thirteen of these little snags 

 and the right fourteen. 



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



