TIGER SLAYER BY ORDER 



In addition to those mentioned in this and previous 

 chapters, the only other wild animals of India dangerous 

 to human life, and therefore of greater interest from the 

 sporting point of view, are the rhinoceros and boar. 



Of the first I have had no personal experience worth 

 recording, as they are only to be found in the dense jungles 

 of Assam and parts of Lower Bengal. The boar, however, 

 I know well and shall have something to say about him 

 later on, but in a chapter to himself ; for to include him 

 amongst the animals I had shot in India, would be to 

 proclaim myself as great a criminal as if, in a hunting 

 district at home, I confessed to having shot a fox ! 



I have, however, still many shooting adventures to 

 relate, for although the bear ends the list of dangerous wild 

 animals in India, I have not as yet exhausted the numerous 

 experiences I have had with the latter, some of which, I 

 trust, mav prove at least as interesting as those already 

 told. 



Meanwhile, I propose to give a short account of what I 

 may describe, in contradistinction to the others, as the 

 non-dangerous big game of India, many of which I have 

 shot from time to time during my long service in that 

 country. 



Of these the first, both in point of size and importance, 

 is the sambar.* This handsome animal, called erroneously 

 by some the Indian elk — for he is in fact the red deer^ — is 

 the largest of all deer, with the exception of the wapili 

 and moose. The stag stands about fourteen hands and 

 weighs from 300 to 600 pounds. In colour it is dark 

 brown, and the throat is surrounded by a shaggy mane 

 which gives a striking appearance to the animal. The 

 horns are not palmated, but antlers, with two lines only, 

 four feet or more in length, and usually indented with deep 

 notches or grooves. 



The females are lighter in colour and have no horns. 

 They live together in small herds of about five or six, and 

 frequent wooded ravines and jungles preferably in rocky 

 and mountainous country. 



In hot weather the male almost always lives up in very 



* Cervus Unicolar. 

 92 



