156 BIG-GAME SHOOTING IN UPPER BURMA 



should like to bring forward. As the laws stand 

 at present for Burma, no males of deer, bark- 

 ing deer excepted, are permitted to be shot in 

 reserved forests between June 15 and October 15. 

 I take it, that the insertion ' in reserved forests ' 

 is intended to protect villagers from ravages by- 

 deer on their crops. This is quite sound except 

 in the case of thamin. If we except the barking 

 deer, the only others are sambur and hog deer, 

 and if the villager occasionally nets or shoots 

 one or the other he is doing no harm to anyone. 

 But thamin do not shed their horns till August, 

 and they are not entirely free from velvet till the 

 middle or end of January. Therefore, would it 

 not be as well to make the close season for 

 thamin from August 1, or earlier, to February 1, 

 omitting the words ' in reserved forests ' and 

 making an exception in the case of villagers whose 

 crops thamin are in the habit of visiting ? I 

 know for a fact that many beats take place both 

 for thamin and barking deer in the late rains in 

 the dry zone, and many a stag in velvet falls a 

 victim at this season. Let the villager sit on his 

 ' teh ' at night, by all means, and pot thamin 

 whenever he finds them in his fields ; but beating 

 for deer when in velvet is quite another matter. 

 I have written at length on the subject of the 

 present game laws for Burma at the risk of being 

 tedious, because I feel it is imperative that 

 some steps should be taken, and that quickly, 



