390 WILD SPORTS OF BURMA AND ASSAM 



having scented the meat, intends, uninvited, to make a mid- 

 night feast on the remnants. The more common and well- 

 known " waugh, waugh " of a prowling leopard bent on a 

 similar errand may also be often heard in some adjacent 

 thicket. The clear bell of a startled sambur, which has perhaps 

 been feeding close by, resounds through the air as he dashes 

 away, a taint of the occupants of the camp, or perhaps of his 

 more deadly enemy, having been wafted to his nostrils and 

 warned him of his danger. All these sounds send through one 

 a thrill of delightful expectation of good sport to come on the 

 morrow. 



At daybreak, should the sportsman be awake, he will hear 

 the familiar sounds which usher in the morn. Jungle-cocks 

 crow, and pea-cocks utter their discordant cries, screaming 

 horn-bills flutter from tree to tree, following one another in 

 single file, a solitary jungle raven croaks overhead, attracted 

 by the hope of picking up something edible, and large flocks 

 of paraqueets and parrots uttering sharp cries pass overhead 

 like fleeting clouds. 



" ' Chota hazri ' ready sir," are always the first words that 

 greet me each morning before I rise, and, after a hurried meal, 

 my hunters and I are soon well on our way towards the 

 ground considered likeliest for our sport. 



There were numerous herds of tsine all over the place, but, 

 as I have said before, I preferred looking for solitary bulls, as 

 they not only gave better sport, but carried better heads than 

 those generally found with a herd. 



While stalking a particular animal picked out from a herd, 

 the sportsmen is often discovered by one of the smaller fry 

 which alarms and disperses the rest. 



I came upon numerous tracks of tsine along the foot of 

 the Thaung-bwet-taung, a range of low-lying hills some ten or 

 fifteen miles inland from the Irrawady, in the Twinge jurisdic- 

 tion of the Tagaung subdivision, Ruby Mines district. 



Game of every description may also be obtained inland 

 either from Tagaung, Twinge, or Thabeitkyin. The steamers 

 which ply on the Irrawady, from Rangoon to Mandalay, and 

 from thence to Bhamo, halt at Tagaung and Thabeitkyin, 

 while a very comfortable " bundobust " or arrangement may 



