THE SAMBUR 
(CERVUS UNICOLOR) 
T HE sambur has a wide range in the forest districts of India, and 
extends to Burma and Ceylon. The hair of the coat is coarser 
than that of most of the deer tribe, and the tail is rather long 
and bushy. The typical head has only three points to each antler, 
though occasionally there are a few extra ones, and the best 
specimen I ever secured has three on the top of each horn. 
The finest heads generally come from the Central Provinces, but the 
record, which just exceeds fifty inches, belongs to Colonel Obeidulla Khan 
of Bhopal; this one, which was shown at the Allahabad Exhibition of 1911, 
and later in London, is very massive, but unfortunately its want of sym- 
metry detracts from its beauty. 
The sambur, though a coarse -looking and somewhat clumsily-built 
animal, gets over rough and hilly ground with remarkable facility. It is 
usually shot in drives or by still -hunting in the early morning; it is not 
an easy beast to drive, and it is rather questionable whether this form of 
hunting should be permitted, as good heads are becoming scarce, and 
anyone who gets one of forty inches or over may count himself very lucky. 
Limiting the number of stags to each sportsman is not in itself sufficient 
protection, as care must be taken to see that too large a proportion of hinds 
is not left, otherwise deterioration of heads is sure to occur. 
Sambur do not seem to drop their horns quite as regularly as other 
species of deer, but are generally supposed to do so early in the hot weather, 
about the end of March or beginning of April. They spend the day in the 
thick jungle, and do not go far away from it when they feed at night. A 
local shikari, who knows their habits well, is often able to get you a second 
shot, should the first attempt fail. When alarmed on their regular ground 
these deer usually seem to take the same course, often round the shoulder 
of a hill, and by running on one can intercept them and get another chance. 
I knew a man in the Mirzapur district of the United Provinces who was 
particularly good at this, and with his assistance killed the heaviest stag I 
have ever seen ; I always regret that I had no means of weighing it accurately. 
The first sambur I ever shot was in the Central Provinces, under 
rather unusual circumstances. The stag was marked down by a native 
on a precipitous promontory, from which there was only the one way 
of egress; I got to the neck in time and secured him, but it is not often 
that any jungle beast allows himself to be scored off like that. 
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