

134 .BISON. 



his natural home, and he never strays to any great distance 

 from their confines. 



For so bulky a beast he is a capital climber, and his 

 neat and small hoof marks will often be discovered in 

 precipitous spots more suitable for ibex than for any other 

 animal. His small feet not much larger than those of a 

 big sambur are a special characteristic, and will at once 

 attract the sportsman's attention, as being apparently 

 disproportionate to the rest of the massive frame they 

 have to support. 



At certain seasons, when the flies in the low and 

 sheltered valleys become very troublesome, the herds often 

 betake themselves to open tracks of grass land on the 

 higher ranges, where the cooler temperature and stronger 

 breezes diminish the numbers of their persecutors. 



The ordinary black house fly is a terrible infliction to 

 man and beast ; he swarms everywhere, and myriads 

 luxuriate even up to an elevation of 7000 feet. Both 

 bison and sambur will then be found on the windward 

 slopes of the hills. 



But the enemy they dread most does not thrive at 

 such high altitudes. He is a species of gadfly, resembling 

 the British cleg or horse-fly, but six times as large, and is 

 armed with a proboscis resembling an elephant's trunk on 

 a small scale. 



This scourge is the originator of " warbles," by 

 depositing its eggs in the flesh of the bison, which 

 subsequently turn into these maggots, and cause the 

 victim intense pain. Sambur and elephants also suffer in 

 this way, but the latter animal extemporises a fly whisk 

 from a branch, which, held by his trunk, is used with 

 deadly effect, for like the cleg these flies are slow in 

 movement and soft in body, and are easily squashed. The 



