FORESTS OF THE BHABAR AND FOOT-HILLS 203 



He turned out a most faithful and valuable attendant, 

 and accompanied me to other districts. 



In a side ravine, which was separated from the main 

 valley by a ridge of high rocks, I came suddenly on a brace 

 of big jerow stags fighting. They had not heard my ap- 

 proach in the heat and noise of the scuffle, their horns 

 being locked together and rattling loudly. I watched 

 them some time from behind the rocks before firing at 

 the biggest. They rushed away in different directions, 

 thundering down the steep hillside. Though shot clean 

 through the heart, the stag ran 200 yards before falling. 

 I once, in the Bori forest, found the skeletons of two stags 

 with horns locked together, both of which had fallen 

 victims to a deadly fight. Some of the old stags attain 

 a great size and weight. I have shot the red deer in the 

 Harz Mountains, and the wapiti in the Rockies, and find 

 the habits of all three very similar. The sambur or jerow 

 is a good half-way size between the other two. The horns, 

 are, however, not to be compared with those of the wapiti, 

 and 40 inches is a very big average length ; but sometimes 

 one meets with very thick horns up to 12 inches in circum- 

 ference. 



I had the good fortune several times on these tramps 

 to come across another animal peculiar to these jungles 

 — the serow* or jungle antelope. He is horned like the 

 gooral, but twice as big, and looks like a short-eared 

 donkey. They have callous, horny knees from constantly 

 lying on rocks, and their hoofs are strong and legs thick 

 and adapted for climbing over rocks. I have found the 

 serow at 3,500 feet, and never as high as Dr. Jerdon places 

 him. He is not a graceful, bounding antelope, but shuffles 

 along, generally down the khud, when disturbed, at a tre- 

 mendous pace. 



* Nemorhadus bubalimts. Habitat, according to Jerdon, from 6,000 

 to 1 2,000 feet. 



