THE MALAYAN SAMBUR 147 



have been more generally remarked lies in the 

 fact that hinds and calves are not, as a rule, 

 observed very closely, and in the stag the spot 

 is just below where the sportsman cuts the 

 neck skin for the mask, supposing him to 

 have taken plenty of ' neck.' In fact, in the 

 stag the spot is a good guide as to the amount 

 of ' neck ' to take. Cut just above it, and you 

 will have more than sufficient. No doubt many 

 a man has noticed this peculiar spot, and has 

 wondered vaguely, as I have myself, what has 

 caused it; but thinking it peculiar to the indi- 

 vidual beast he has just shot, and that probably 

 it was caused by the animal running up against 

 a pointed bamboo or similar obstacle, he has 

 not bothered his head for further evidence. 

 By the time he has shot his next sambur, 

 perhaps a year or so later, he has forgotten all 

 about it. I remember when walking up to 

 the first sambur stag I shot, I thought at first 

 that my bullet had hit him in the throat, and 

 only realised that it was not so when I had 

 turned him over and found the bullet-wound 

 on the point of the shoulder where I had aimed. 

 If any sportsman should be inclined to doubt 

 my statement as to this blemish on a sambur 's 

 throat, I can only say let him examine care- 

 fully the very next sambur he shoots ; and if 

 he doesn't find a large, bare circular scar on its 

 throat, with a blood-red spot in the centre of it, 



