230 BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 
yards off, and getting out my binocular glasses, I watched a fight 
between two fine stags. I did not get a clear view of the fight 
because the bushes and high grass so often impeded the view; but 
I watched them for some time, and the fight continued for several 
minutes. I went round by a ford and got over to the other side of 
the river in the hope of getting a shot, but was unsuccessful. 
Sambhur are supposed to shed their horns annually in or about 
March as the hot weather comes on, but this is denied, I see, by the 
author of “ Nilghiri Sporting Reminiscences,” who states that the 
annual shedding of horns by sambhur is a myth inthe Nilghiris, and 
he states that he has known, by undoubted evidence, stags carry 
their horns more than two successive seasons. Captain Forsyth, in 
the “ Highlands of Central India,” states he was perfectly convinced 
that neither in the case of the sambhur nor the cheetul are the 
antlers shed regularly every year in the forests of Central India. 
I have myself on a few occasions seen sambhur with good heads in 
May, and I have often seen cheetul with good heads in that month. 
I once shot a good stag sambhur in May. I think, therefore, we 
may be satisfied that sambhur do, as a rule, shed their horns 
annually, but there are often exceptions to the rule. In. the hot 
weather in the Satpuras, when the jungles are burnt, I have noticed the 
sambhur often get together, five or six in a herd. I have seen as 
many as seven or eight. The jungle being very open there they are 
very wild and difficult of approach. Captain Forsyth speaks of seeing 
herds of thirty and forty in this neighbourhood. No such herds are 
to be seen now. They appear to like to keep up in the hills in the 
hot- weather, and do not often come down in the plains below in the 
day time. 
SAMBHUR NEAR BOMBAY. 
There used to be sambhur in the island of Salsette. In 1877 I 
was in at the death of one on the top of the high hill over Vehar 
Lake, within 18 miles say of where we now are. Ir sgret to say she 
was a hind, but for my own reputation I must say I had no hand in 
killing her. I believe she was the last survivor of the race in 
Salsette, as I have never heard of any there since. At Lanowlee, 
close to the reservoir, I once put up a doe sambhur with its fawn 
whilst beating the jungle. Alas! two valiant railway men from 
Lanowlee killed them both next day, and I believe there are none in 
that neighbourhood now. Sambhur occasionally bell when they 
