356 WILD SPORTS OF BURMA AND ASSAM 



spherical ball. Moung Hpe stood in readiness beside me with 

 the 12 smooth-bore. The wind, although I had not tested it, 

 must have been in our favour, as the gaur moved steadily on 

 till within about 20 yards of my position, when he stopped, 

 evidently suspicious that all was not right. 



I did not care to fire at once, as I wanted to watch his 

 actions and methods of feeding. I noticed particularly that 

 whilst walking slowly along he browsed on the rough leaves 

 of a certain bush called by the Burmans " kyan-sa," or 

 rhinoceros food, the rough tongue of the animal being used 

 to pull the leaves and small twigs into his mouth. At 

 intervals, whilst standing, he would whisk round his tail on 

 to his ribs with a resounding thump, thump, emitting at times 

 the low deep breathing sounds. Old bulls can never graze 

 on very short grass if they are standing on level ground, as 

 their necks are too short to allow of their mouths reaching 

 low enough. In the same way, many a charging gaur could 

 not toss or reach with its horns a man lying perfectly flat on 

 the ground. 1 



After waiting patiently for a few seconds he veered suddenly 

 round, and stood in a listening attitude as if expecting some- 

 thing to approach, and exposed his shoulder. I immediately 

 availed myself of the opportunity and, raising the 8-bore slowly, 

 fired, aiming for a little behind the shoulder low down. Instead 

 of turning off and crashing away down the hillside, or dropping 

 dead, the gaur stood stock-still for about thirty seconds, and 

 then made a sort of half-hearted blundering rush towards the 

 tree behind which I had taken up my stand. A second shot, 

 however, from the 8-bore turned him, and he went staggering 

 away down the steep incline into a nullah, where he fell with 

 a tremendous crash, stone dead. I found, on opening him, 

 that my second bullet had pierced the heart. My first bullet 

 had entered a little too high. The tape showed his height to 

 be 1 8 hands 3 inches, and 10 feet 3 inches in length; the 

 horns were very massive at the base, with a circumference of 

 19^ inches, but were short. 



One has to be particularly careful when firing at gaur not 



1 Disproved in the case of Captain Syers, who, when lying on his back, 

 was tossed and killed by a gaur : vide page 366 of this chapter. 



