OF WILD ANIMALS 279 



clawed by the assailant's hind feet. The main beam of the 

 right antler had been broken oflf half-way up, while the antlers 

 were still in the velvet, which enabled us to fix the probable 

 date of the encounter. 



In the great Wynaad forest I once got lost, and in toiling 

 through a five acre patch of grass higher than my head, and 

 so dense that it was not negotia,ble except by following the 

 game trails, my simple old Kuramber and I came suddenly 

 upon the scene of a great struggle. In the center of a space 

 about twenty feet in diameter, on which the tall grass had 

 been trampled flat, lay the remains of a sambar stag which 

 had very recently been killed and eaten by a tiger. The neck 

 had not been dislocated, and the sambar had fought long and 

 hard. Evidently the tiger had lain in wait on the runway, 

 and had failed to subdue the sambar by his first fierce onslaught. 

 Now an angry stag with good antlers is no mean antagonist, 

 and it is strange if the tiger in the case went through that 

 struggle without a puncture in his tawny skin. 



In South Africa, Vaughan Kirby once found the dead 

 bodies of a "patriarchal bull" sable antelope and a lion, 

 "which had evidently been a fine specimen," lying close to- 

 gether, where the two animals had fallen after a great 

 struggle. The sable antelope must have killed its antagonist 

 by a lucky backward thrust of its long, curved horns as the 

 lion fastened upon its back to pull it down. 



Mr. Kirby's dogs once disturbed a sanguinary struggle 

 between a leopard and a wild boar, or "bush pig," which had 

 well-nigh reached a finish. The old boar, when bayed by the 

 dogs, was found to be most terribly mauled. Its tough skin 

 hung literally in shreds from its neck and shoulders, presenting 

 ghastly open wounds. The entrails protruded from a deep 

 daw gash in the side, and the head was a mass of blood and 

 dirt. "On searching around," says Mr. Kirby, "we found 

 unmistakable evidence of a life and death struggle. The 

 ground was covered with gouts of blood and yellow hair, to 



