66 BIG-GAME SHOOTING IN UPPER BURMA 



mithun and waded into the stream. There was 

 no sign of the bison, however, and I had just 

 turned round to tell the villagers what I thought 

 of them, when he suddenly appeared out of 

 the kaing grass, and trotted down the stream 

 in a mighty hurry to join the mithun. Young 

 bull as he was, he looked gigantic beside them. 

 I fired as he passed me, at about forty yards, the 

 bullet catching him obliquely in the quarters and 

 raking him. We found it afterwards imbedded 

 in his lungs. The bull turned off at right angles 

 and galloped up the bank, and we found him 

 lying down a few hundred yards farther on. A 

 shot in the neck finished him. The horns were 

 just beginning to get corrugated, and were about 

 23 in. in length, with a girth of 16 in. I kept 

 the head for some time as a memento of a curious 

 incident, but eventually gave it away. 



The bison is said to breed in the cold season, 

 but this appears open to doubt. Burmese 

 hunters aver that there is no fixed season either 

 for bison or tsaing, and that the period of 

 gestation for both species alike is eleven months. 

 This view would seem to be more or less correct. 

 Bison and tsaing are so closely allied that in 

 this respect one would not expect to find any 

 material difference. The writer has generally 

 seen young bison calves in May, but once 

 surprised a herd in July which had some young 

 calves with it, one of which in a panic ran 



