mTES ON TEE HOG DEER IN BUB3IA. 3il 



luxuriantly in many places in Lower and Upper Burma, and to 

 which brow-antlered deer are also partial. Burmans have informed 

 me that hog deer will under cover of darkness enter cultivation if in 

 the immediate vicinity of cover. 



These animals usually go to water just before or shortly after dark. 

 When returning to camp late in the evening, several deer may be put up 

 in the grass leading up to the water-supply. During the day they lie 

 concealed under the grass, and do not, like the Tbamin stags, leave it 

 to wallow in the mud and slush of drying up pools. 



The hot weather (about the middle of March) is, perhaps, the best 

 time of year to hunt them ; the greater portion of the heavy grass has 

 by that time been burned, and the water-supply is limited. Hog deer 

 may occasionally be stalked, but, in order to obtain such sport, a know- 

 ledge of all the likely places to find them is requisite ; these can then 

 bo visited during the early hours of the morning, and, with luck, one 

 or two may be discovered grazing, in which case, with ordinary care, a 

 successful stalk may be made, as they are not more difHcult to approach 

 than other deer. Shooting from elephants may also be tried, but as 

 well-trained shikar elephants are distinctly rare over here, it cannot be 

 recommended. 1 certainly have not had the good fortune to find one. 

 A few years ago, a friend and I, beinn- anxious to try this method, 

 procured two elephants — ordinary timber- working animals ; the only 

 thing to recommend them was that they stood fire fairly well, but were, 

 nevertheless, nervous and easily scared. Having no howdahs, we were 

 obliged to sit in ordinary Burmese elephant baskets which were most 

 uncomfortable. The elephants afforded us plenty of excitement, and we 

 obtained many shots; but owing to their everlasting antics and the 

 fact that we used rifles, the bags were extremely small. We hoped 

 in the following year to make better arrangements, but were not 

 given the opportunity, as some one stole the elephants. Other 

 means had to he devised for circumventing them. After consultation 

 with the shikarisy it was decided to construct a moderately high seat, 

 or small platform, and to fix it into a bullock cart ; to lessen the effects 

 of the terrible jolting, pillows (gunny bags filled with straw) were used. 

 A steady pair of bullocks with a shikari as driver rendered this con- 

 trivance an admirable substitute for an elephant. Close, but not always 

 easy, shots were obtained, and my experience is that a bolting hog deer 

 is an uncommonly hard target to hit. The great objection to the use 



