THE BROW-ANTLERED DEER 161 



old stags go off, either alone or attended by one 

 or two does, or a small stag who acts as a fag. 

 A good head with a herd is seldom seen after 

 May. The best time for thamin shooting is 

 from March up to the middle of April. During 

 February there are too many leaves in the 

 bushes, and the stags seem to keep more or less 

 under cover until the rut is well advanced. If 

 the sportsman is not limited in the matter of 

 time or distance, it is advisable, in his own 

 interests, and in those of the thamin, as well as 

 of succeeding sportsmen, to make it a rule never 

 to shoot more than two stags in the same locality. 

 It is so easy to go on for another ten or fifteen 

 miles, and so give the thamin a chance, as 

 well as himself the opportunity of trying fresh 

 ground. Too frequently a man finding thamin 

 plentiful near a particular village, stops there 

 for a week or ten days, and perhaps shoots half 

 a dozen stags on the same ground, out of which 

 number possibly two only have respectable 

 heads. 



