346 WILD SPORTS OF BURMA AND ASSAM 



recently been in the neighbourhood, consequently numerous 

 lanes had been trodden down, affording an easy passage. 



Two of my hunters who were with me on this occasion, 

 Moung Hpe and Moung Yan Gin, were both armed with 

 muzzle-loading Tower muskets. Finding that the wind was 

 in our favour, after testing it in the usual way, I took my 

 8-bore and moved cautiously forward, sending Yan Gin and 

 Moung Hpe round on either side of the herd, so that they 

 might also obtain a shot after I had fired. I had not gone 

 forty yards before I heard a gaur breathing stertorously whilst 

 browsing. A whisk of its tail brought it to my view standing 

 broadside on beside a clump of bamboo, all vital parts, how- 

 ever, being hidden behind the clump. To glide off to one 

 side and take up my position behind another clump, some 

 fifteen paces from the animal, was the work of a second or 

 two. I had not long to wait before the gaur, stepping out, 

 exposed his whole body. I immediately fired, aiming, as 

 he was standing away from me, for a little behind the 

 shoulder. The shot took effect through the heart, as dashing 

 away for about thirty yards she collapsed all of a heap. 

 Moung Hpe succeeded in bagging a huge bull with one shot 

 through the neck, the animal dropping dead in its tracks. 

 Moung Yan Gin wounded another, which, charging in my 

 direction, was bowled over by me with a right and left. The 

 animal shot by me turned out to be a large female, standing 

 about i8|- hands with a fair head. Moung Yan Gin's bull, 

 finished off by me, stood i8J hands, and measured from tip 

 to tip 1 1 feet 6 inches. Moung Hpe's animal stood 3 inches 

 higher, but was the same length to half an inch. I am aware 

 that it is not supposed to be the correct thing amongst sports- 

 men to shoot females unless you are badly off for fresh meat, 

 but I can only plead guilty to my want of discrimination 

 between bulls and cows. 



It takes, in my opinion, no little experience to be able to 

 pick out at a glance the bulls from the cows in a herd when 

 you have only got, say, some ten or fifteen seconds to do it in, 

 and where the gloom of the jungle is great. Should you by 

 chance happen to come across the animals in dark tree jungle 

 where the gloom is great, it is well-nigh impossible to dis- 



