from the dorsal ridge running with a slight upward slope to about the middle of the back and then dropping suddenly towards the rump.  Mr. Sanderson has never shot a bull more than six feet in height at the shoulder (if measured at the top of the dorsal ridge the height would of course be more), but Jerdon the naturalist, quoting Elliot (the late Sir Walter, a very careful observer) mentions six feet one-and-a-half inch as the height of one.  I have generally found that an average sized bull is six feet, but I once killed one that was seven feet, and a neighbour of mine who has seen a great deal of bison shooting has killed one of similar height, and he informs me that he is positive that he has seen a larger bull than either of these very exceptional animals.

Bison herds generally number about twelve or fourteen, and I have never seen one of more than twenty-three, but at certain seasons they congregate in considerable numbers and again separate into small herds.  They lie at night in a compact circle so that if attacked by a tiger they are ready to oppose at once a good front to the enemy.  They seem to be quite aware that if they were to lie scattered about a tiger might suddenly spring upon one of them.

The bison has never been kept long in captivity, and there is only one instance of its having been so, and that is in the case of a bull bison now in possession of His Highness the Maharajah of Mysore.  The history of this animal, and more especially of the warm friendship that sprung up between it and a doe sambur deer, is extremely interesting.  I took down the following from my neighbour Mr. Park, and read over to him the account I now give.

It appears then that Mr. Park when out shooting some years ago, caught a male calf bison which was supposed to be about three days old.  About a week afterwards a young doe sambur, which was being pursued by jungle dogs, rushed into one of the labourer’s huts and was secured.  It was then resolved to keep the deer as a companion for the bison, and the two were kept together, though they were never shut up.  They were first of all fed on milk, and then allowed to graze, and soon became quite inseparable companions.  They were fed at twelve o’clock and at four in the afternoon, and seemed to know their feeding time exactly.  When about two years old it was resolved to fit the bison with a nose rope, and for this the nose had of course to be bored.  He was tied up to a tree to be operated on and, after the hole was bored, he was liberated, when he rushed all over the ground adjacent to the house bellowing with rage—­the only time, I may add, Mr. Park ever heard him bellow.  After this he was regularly led out to graze by a man who trained him, by pulling the nose rope, to go in one direction or another.  After this he was fed on gram (a kind of pea).  When thus led out to graze the sambur sometimes remained behind, but seemed to have no difficulty in finding the bull even