146 BIG-GAME SHOOTING IN UPPER BURMA 



rubbed itself against a tree or branch to get 

 rid of the irritation, it would do so with 

 an up-and-down motion, and the result would 

 be irregular scratches along the throat. But 

 strange to say, in spite of the forbidding appear- 

 ance of the sore, sambur do not appear to be 

 at all inconvenienced by it. I have watched 

 sambur when out in the open, both in India 

 and Burma, for half an hour or more at a time, 

 on purpose to see whether the animals rubbed 

 the sore ; but I never saw any sambur, whether 

 young or old, pay the slightest attention to it. 

 That the disfigurement is caused by a peculiar 

 parasite which only attacks the sambur is quite 

 certain; but why it should invariably confine 

 its attentions to the throat, or why it should 

 make a complete circle, and having done so, 

 desist from further attack, I know not. Judging 

 by the bleeding spot in the centre of the circle, 

 it looks as if the parasite, having reached its 

 limits, returned to the original spot and fed 

 there, since it is, in full-grown animals, always 

 quite raw, the remainder of the circle being 

 merely bare and pink-looking. Seen in the 

 early dawn this raw spot has quite a grue- 

 some appearance. At what age the calves are 

 attacked I do not know, but I have seen the spot 

 distinctly on quite young calves, not more 

 than a month or two old. 



The reason, I think, why this should not 



