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Show 1867.] LIEUT. R. C. BEAVAN ON THE PANOLIA DEER. 763 eat the meat, because they think it will bring on cholera. It is rarely brought into Moulmein. In the country the wholesale price* of a doe is rupees 3, a buck, is rupees 4, which is of course less than the usual retail bazaar rate. The flesh is said to smell a little about the end of March, when the weather is very hot; it is best for food about November and December. The range of the Panolia Deer, according to Mr. Davis, is as follows :-In the Martaban district they inhabit exclusively the open grassy plains between the sea and the mountains. In the Pegu plains they are perhaps more abundant than in any other part of Burmah ; next to these the Yengyaing plain in Martaban produces most; near Rangoon they are found in the Dallah plain. About Pegu and Yengyaing they are found in herds of from fifty to a hundred in the month of March; but when hunted they congregate much more, and as many as two hundred may then be seen together. In habits they are essentially gregarious, and associate with no other species, although Hog-deer abound in the grass and jungle along the edges of the plain ; nor will they allow the tame Buffaloes to come nearer to them than about 100 yards. In habits they are very wary and difficult of approach, especially the males. They are also very timid, and easily startled ; the males, however, when wounded and brought to bay with dogs get very savage and charge vigorously. On being disturbed they invariably make for the open, instead of resorting to the heavy jungle like Hog-deer and Sambur. In fact the Thamyn is essentially a plain-loving species ; aud, although it will frequent tolerably open tree-jungle, fur the sake of its shade, it will never venture into dense or matted underwood-i.e. "bush-jungle," in contradistinction to "tree-jungle." Indeed I was credibly informed of a large stag which, being driven into a corner of the plain last year by herd-boys with pariah dogs, and finding no means of escape, took refuge in heavy jungle, where its horns got entangled in an Hibiscus bush, and so was actually captured alive. Its captors, however, soon put an end to its existence with a sharp " dhar." When first started the pace of the Thamyn is great. It commences by giving three or four large bounds like the Axis or Spotted Deer, and afterwards settles down into a long trot, which it will keep up for six or seven miles on end when frequently disturbed. This is when the vegetation on the plain is comparatively short. In the rains they do not go far before they find a hiding-place in the long paddy. Their powers of leaping are highly developed. On the Yengyaing plain alone there are at the present time about a thousand head, on the Thatong plain, a little further to the north-west, perhaps a hundred head only, which go about in small herds of seven and eight. At Yengyaing the annual number killed amounts to about forty-five, including those bagged by Europeans; and about five natives gain their livelihood in that place almost entirely by the sale of its flesh. They are least gregarious in the rainy weather. The females have mostly then retired in twos and threes into quiet * The price quoted is what a shikarry usually expects to realize. |
