NOTES ON SAMBHUR AND SAMBHUR S'TALKING. 229 
These horns have nine tines, being three more than the regulation 
number, and are spoken of in the Asian by one correspondent as the 
“Coromandel monstrosity.” They were picked up on the Coromandel 
Coast, and though there is every reason to suppose they are sam- 
bhur horns, still they are described as a trophy representing the 
utmost limit of eccentricity which nature is capable of producing. 
The weight of these horns is enormous, but this can be partly 
accounted for by the horns being malformed and containing three 
extra tines. The editor of the Asian stated that a correspondent 
wrote he had seen horns of 44 inches, and quoted another from 
Wilson’s Himalayan Journal of 46 inches. One or two correspondents, 
I see, record horns of 89 inchesas being large. Mr. Sterndale, in 
his book states he has in his collection a horn of 45 inches, whilst 
Mr. Inverarity tells me he has killed one of 44 inches. I have killed 
one or two heads over 89 inches and one of 41 inches. From a 
perusal of abook called “ Nilghiri Sporting Reminiscences,” it would 
appear the Nilghiri sambhur have but small heads, as the author of 
that work speaks of the best heads as being only 85 or 87 inches. 
Captain Forsyth, in the ‘ Highlands of Central Iudia,” a great 
authority, speaks of 41 inches as the largest he had ever seen. 
This is all the information I can give you about the size of sam- 
bhur horns, and it shows conclusively that this broken horn beats 
the record into fits by several inches. I should mention that this 
broken horn weighs 6 lbs. 3 oz., and assuming everything in its 
favour, it could hardly weigh so much as the Coromandel Coast horns, 
unless, perhaps, the extra tines were cut off the latter, and then, per- 
haps, the horn might equal the largest of them. I wrote a letter tothe 
Asian some time ago describing this horn, in the hope that sports- 
men and naturalists might supply some further information or 
discuss the subject, but with the exception of its publication by the 
editor, nobody took the slightest notice of it ; I fear that I was taken 
for one of the 12 foot tiger school and thought unworthy of notice. 
A FIGHT BETWEEN STAGS. 
I have often come across places in the jungle where the bushes 
and grass have been trampled down and the ground torn up, show- 
ing the scene of a combat between two sambhur stags. 
A few years since, whilst walking along the jungle overhanging 
the Taptee River, my attention was attracted by the noise of the 
clashing together of horns on the other side of the river, some 300 
32 
aianeeeaensiies 
