3 86 WILD SPORTS OF BURMA AND ASSAM 



clime, not to speak of the want of sleep, worry one to such 

 an extent on these occasions, that a sportsman is entirely 

 knocked up for any hard walking he may have to undergo on 

 the following day. 



Tsine, especially old solitary bulls, often travel many miles 

 when on the move. I have often been led a long tramp after 

 picking up the tracks of a bull which had apparently only 

 passed an hour or two ago. The trackers must usually follow 

 at a slower pace than that at which the animal is moving. 

 The consequence is, that should the fresh track of an animal 

 be picked up at, say, 7 a.m., it has probably moved into some 

 dense cover by the time the sportsman has come up with 

 it, in which case he will not be able to stalk it successfully. 

 It is always the best plan, in cases of this sort, to leave the 

 animal undisturbed till evening. He will then come out of 

 the cover in which he has been lying up, and begin grazing 

 close by, probably in some open bamboo forest, where he can 

 be easily stalked and shot. It is well-nigh impossible to stalk 

 a tsine when he has taken up a position in cover for a sleep 

 during the heat of the day. The slightest noise will awaken 

 him, and he will be off before you can draw a bead on him. 

 One might just as well try to walk up a sleeping sambur in 

 cover as try to stalk a solitary bull tsine ; both are especially 

 wary, the former perhaps a degree more so than the latter. 

 In the cold season, i. e. November, December, and January, I 

 have often seen a herd of tsine sunning themselves out in the 

 open till 9 or 10 in the morning. They very rarely lie up in 

 dense cover during these months, unless disturbed or appre- 

 hensive of danger, when they seek the thickest cover available. 

 Old bulls which have been shot at or driven out of a herd, 

 invariably lie up in the most inaccessible places they can find. 

 When in cover, they prefer to lie up in kaing grass or thick 

 bamboo jungle where there is some shade, and where they 

 can detect from underneath, without rising, the approach of 

 anything, while remaining unseen themselves. In colour the 

 old bulls have often a dull, dirty-brown appearance, approach- 

 ing sometimes almost to black. In the distance, some 200 yards 

 off, I once mistook a pair of old bulls for gaur, so dark were they. 

 In the case of some animals in a herd, I have noticed a distinct 



