THE TEAK REGION 189 



Though not a very large stag, he was very old and 

 rather mangy, and had a perfect head with the usual 

 three points on each horn, and measuring from base to 

 tip forty-one inches, round the base ten inches, and eight 

 and a half at the thinnest part of the beam. I have 

 never seen a larger head altogether than this in Central 

 India. It is figured at the end of the present chapter. 

 The horns of sambar vary greatly in development, some 

 being very massive but short, and others very long but 

 slender. Really good heads every way hke this one are 

 the rare exception, and would not be seen once out of 

 perhaps fifty animals shot. About thirty to thirty-five 

 inches is the average length of the horns even of mature 

 stags. Occasionally more than three tines are seen on 

 one or both antlers ; but this is an abnormal development, 

 and such heads will generally be found of stunted growth 

 and devoid of symmetry. Sometimes the inner and some- 

 times the outer tine of the terminal fork will be found the 

 longer. 



I have taken much pains to assure myself of a fact, 

 of which I am now perfectly convinced, namely, that, 

 neither in the case of the sambar nor the spotted deer 

 (both belonging to the Asiatic group of Rusinae as dis- 

 tinguished from the Cervidse or true stags), are the antlers 

 regularly shed every year in these Central Indian forests, 

 as is the case with the Cervidse in cold chmates.^ No 

 native shikari, who is engaged all his life in the pursuit 

 of these animals, will allow such to be the case ; and all 

 sportsmen out at that season must have seen stags with 

 full-grown horns during the hot weather and rains, when 

 they are supposed to have shed them. Hornless stags are 

 seen at that season, but the great majority have perfect 

 heads. I have also known certain stags for successive 

 years always about the same locality, and which I have 



^ Probably on the higher hill ranges they shed them more regularly ; 

 on the Nilgherry hills I saw a number of stags in the month of July, 

 and none of them had fuU-grown horns. I may add here that but one 

 species of this deer is now recognised as inhabiting all India, including 

 the Gerow of the Himalayas, and that I believe, after inspecting large 

 collections of horns, etc., it nowhere attains greater development than 

 in Central India. 



