The stags generally cease calling towards the end of October (Ward says 20th), and after that there is little chance of getting sport till the snow drives them down, or, failing an early fall, till the spring.
Major Ward says a well-shaped 10-point head of 40 ins. should not be despised, but the majority of heads shot, according to the writer’s experience, do not average more than 37 ins.; 40 ins. and over being exceptional heads.
XXVIII. THE SIKKIM STAG (Cervus affinis vel Wallichi)
Native name: ‘Shou.’ Habitat: Eastern Himalayas; Thibet, in the Choombi Valley, on the Sikkim side of Thibet (Sterndale)
None of the heads of this variety in the British Museum have more than ten points. Their colour, according to Jerdon, is a fine clear grey in winter, with a moderately large disc; pale rufous in summer, quite different from the rich mouse colour of the barasingh. Hodgson’s description of the horns is most accurate, the flatness of the brow antlers is very marked, ‘pedicles elevate; burrs rather small; two basal antlers, nearly straight, so forward in direction as to overshadow the face to the end of the nasal; larger than the royal antlers; median or royal antlers directed forwards and upwards; beam with a terminal fork, the prongs radiating laterally and equally, the inner one longest and thinnest.’ There is an enormous head in the British Museum, the two brow antlers of which bend downwards on each side. As in the case of the barasingh, the second brow antler, or bez, is always longer than the first.
As regards the allied maral stag of Persia and Turkestan, Major Cumberland, in his letters published by ‘Land and Water,’ 1891, writes that the Turkestan name for the stag is ‘bōghè,’ the hind being called ‘maral.’ This deer resembles the red stag, in that the brow antler is longer than the bez, and the crown is more of the wapiti type.
Another variety, with horns also of the wapiti type, Cervus Eustephanus, was discovered by Mr. W. Blanford in the Thian Shan mountains. He describes this variety as also having the brow antler longer than the bez.
XXIX. MUSK DEER (Moschus moschiferus)
Generally ‘Kastura’; Garwhal and Kumaon, ‘Bena,’ ‘Masaknaba’; Cashmere, ‘Roos,’ ‘Rous’
This little deer is found all over the hills above an altitude of 7,000 or 8,000 ft., except in Ladak, though it is said to be plentiful in Thibet, beyond the frontier of Nepal.