64 BIG-GAME SHOOTING IN UPPER BURMA 



existence forced on him, for the time being at 

 any rate. 



At the risk of multiplying examples I would 

 ask those of my readers who doubt my theory 

 to explain how it is that when following the 

 trail of a solitary bull, perhaps for some miles, 

 it is occasionally found to cross the fresh tracks 

 of a herd, and thereafter to follow and mingle 

 with them, and how it is that when this happens 

 it is rarely that the bull can be come up with. 

 It is simply that the bull has scented the tracks 

 of the cows, who keep on the trot throughout 

 the day to escape the pertinacious attention 

 either of the herd bull or, possibly, of the animal 

 whose trail the sportsman is following. In 

 either case the result is the same. The herd keeps 

 constantly on the move, closely followed by the 

 bull, which the hunter is unable to overtake in 

 consequence. Burmese hunters, who are often 

 very close observers of animal life, certainly 

 believe firmly that single animals consort with 

 herds from time to time. One other instance 

 bearing on this theory, and I have done. I once 

 shot a young bull which had attached himself 

 to a herd of tame mithun cattle. Now, why? 

 Had he been a bull in his prime, with a fine head, 

 it would be difficult to account for his extra- 

 ordinary predilection; for there were plenty of 

 bison in the neighbourhood. But the age of the 

 animal — he was not more than five or six years 



