we 
99 
8 BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 
teaches me that the sambhur in the Satpuras are the largest in those 
parts of India of which I have any knowledge. I have never seen 
the head of a sambhur from the Ghauts or the Concan of any size. 
They always have appeared dwarfed. It is true I have not seen many 
from those parts. In fact, there are but a few, and those are fast disap- 
pearing. [hope you will pardon my absence of modesty when I tell you 
that, so far as I can discover, I have seen and knocked the horn off 
the biggest sambhur in the world. The horn is here, and has been 
given by me to this Society. On the 27th December, 1886, 
when stalking with Mr. Barton near the Taptee River, a few miles 
from Asirghur, ix the Central Provinces, I put up a monster stag 
sambhur out of a thick nullah. It ran down the nullah. I was 
standing on the top. I only saw him for a second or two, and had 
only time to take a snap-shot at him before he passed round a bend 
in the nullah. The shell hit his horn from behind and knocked it 
off, splitting it up as you see. I picked the horn up and here it 
is. I never saw that sambbur again; but to the last day of my life 
I shall never forget him or cease to regret I missed him. The 
horn you see is broken off just above or in the neighbourhood of the 
brow antler, and it measures from the broken end to the tip of the 
longest point along the outside 444 inches. The horn being broken 
off above the brow antler, I can fairly assume the length of the 
horn was nearly, if not quite, 50 inches. The end of the horn 
where the split is appears slightly turned up, as though this were 
near the base of the horn. This, however, cannot be, as will be easily 
seen if the horn is held up in the right position. I shot at the stag 
running away. The mark where the 500-bore express shell hit the 
horn is plainly visible. This ‘proves the horn to be the left horn, 
and also satisfies me that the end of the split portion is turned up at 
the spot where the brow antler joined. The top antler of this 
horn is 22 inches long. This gives the great length to the horn, I 
have been searching up authorities to find out the biggest horn on 
record. I find that in the Asian of 1884, especially the number of 20th 
August, 1884, the subject of the length of sambhur horns is fuily 
discussed. The Asian states the largest pair of horns on record 
are those known as the Coromanded Coast horns in the Calcutta 
Museum, and gives an illustration of them. The Astan appears to 
vonsider the largest to mean the heaviest in weight. The length of 
the longest beam of these horns is 414 inches, and the right brow 
antler 20 inches, the weight of both horns being together 224 lbs. 
J 
