184 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTRAL INDIA 



keen survey of all their surroundings before lying down 

 for the day. At all times but the rutting season (October 

 and November) the heavy old stags remain mostly sohtary, 

 a few young animals only remaining with the herd, which 

 consists of ten to fifteen individuals. The old stags 

 usually travel deeper into the forest and higher up the hills 

 before lying down than the herd, which is often found 

 within a mile or so of their feeding ground. In all cases a 

 patch of longish grass is selected, and a regular form like 

 that of a hare is made by each individual. Each form is 

 usually in the shade of a small tree, the side or top of the 

 hiU, where grass is long but trees not very numerous or 

 thick, being preferred to very dense thickets; and it is 

 curious with what skill the spot is selected, so that the 

 deepest shade shall fall on the form at about three o'clock 

 in the afternoon, which is the hottest portion of the day. 

 Hundreds of forms wiU sometimes be found in one locality, 

 every one of them at precisely the same point of the compass 

 from its sheltering tree. The large stags do not seem to 

 care so much about shade, and generally lie on the side of 

 some little depression on a hUl top, sheltered only by long 

 grass. Their forms can be readily distinguished from those 

 of the others by their greatly superior size. These forms 

 are generally made when the grass is green, and are 

 occupied at intervals all the rest of the year. More than 

 one herd and a few solitary stags will not usually be found 

 in the same tract of coimtry; but in the rutting season 

 they collect together in much larger numbers on the tops 

 of the high plateaux; and the hoarse roar of the stags 

 may then be heard echoing far and wide in the silent night. 

 When lying down for the day, sambar, and particularly 

 the solitary stags, will frequently allow one to approach 

 and pass them quite close without getting up, trusting to 

 concealment in the grass ; and it is really almost impossible 

 in many places for the sportsman on foot to see them unless 

 he actually stumbles on their forms. The hard, yellow grass, 

 while unburnt, leaves next to no trail of the passage of a 

 single deer, and thus the search for sambar on foot after 

 the hour when they he down is seldom very successful. 

 If information can be got from the people who frequent 



