VARIETIES OF SAMBUR 105 



THE DEER TRIBE 

 . SAMBUR 



In Burma I am convinced there are two varieties of this 

 noble stag. Those which inhabit the higher ranges of the 

 hills of the country are identical in appearance, and carry 

 heads as large as those of the Neilgherry hills, but those called 

 " Sapt " found in the plains of Burma (Lower) although 

 as bulky as the others, have but poor heads, and are wanting 

 in the mane, so conspicuous in their brethren of the mountains. 



We used to hunt them generally during May, but I have 

 shot them at other seasons ; they shed their horns during June, 

 and are in hiding till September ; the velvet is not worn off 

 till October, which is their rutting season. Another peculiarity 

 I noticed in these animals was that every one we shot had an 

 abrasion of the skin of the neck underneath, of the size of an 

 eight-anna piece, about the same size as a shilling, caused, 

 the Burmese said, by the sambur rubbing the part to get rid 

 of parasites. They are gregarious, living in communities of 

 six or eight, only one being a stag. When passing through a 

 forest, the stag brings up the rear. They are possessed of 

 immense vitality, and will go away with wounds that would 

 stop most animals. Col. Campbell, " the old Forest Ranger," 

 mentions an instance of a stag going off with thirteen well- 

 placed bullets, and I have myself put eight belted balls out of 

 a lo-bore double rifle by old Joseph Lang into a moderate- 

 sized sambur before he fell. I also once shot one through 

 the heart, and he ran for 200 yards without showing a sign of 

 having been hit, and then rolled over dead. 



The very best stags are the solitaires that lead a hermit's 

 life, and are usually in almost inaccessible posts. A really 

 fine stag is a trophy indeed, but out of upwards of a hundred 

 that I shot in the plains of Burma I did not get a single head 

 worth mentioning, nor did I see a good pair of horns on any of 

 the stags shot by others, nor any on the many skulls we came 

 across killed either by tigers or which had died of the rinder- 

 pest. The " bell " of a Rusa can be heard a long way off, and 



