202 My Indian Consignment. 



already captured. There may be little or no trapping to be 

 done, close to headquarters and then one has to trust to luck 

 as to what may be brought in and thus loses the most interest- 

 ing part of collecting, viz.: the actual trapping. This is the 

 reason that as a rule hens are far harder to get at home than 

 cocks, even with birds that are fairly well known. In many 

 cases the trappers do not know the hens, though frequently 

 they will not acknowledge this, and one gets the most ill as- 

 sorted birds brought in as a pair, — for some strange reason the 

 Sahib wants pairs, and who are we to disappoint him? One 

 day a Crow -Tit was brought in as the hen of a "White-headed 

 Shrike -Babbler, in spite of the difference in beaks, and the 

 former had made its beak noticed. The next day a Eusty- 

 cheeked and Slaty-headed Scimitar Babbler were said to be a 

 pair. Some m^n are not quite so bad; and at any rate I have 

 found the natives better at trapping than at looking after 

 their captures, and so I had to forego trapping to a large 

 ex^'^nt, and had usually reason to regret it when I did indulge 

 myself. This applies chiefly to my Darjeeling trip. My 

 bungalow at Bakloh makes an ideal headquarters as trapping 

 is good quite close. I seem to be getting on a bit too fast. 

 What I wanted to lay stress on was the advisability of collect- 

 ing with a companion if possible, though for an attempt like 

 this I must confess that it would not be easy for anyone to 

 find a really suitable companion, hastily adding that of course 

 married couples count as one and cannot be separated at any 

 rate in wild and solitary places. AVhen found th.e fortunate 

 two would have a most decided advantage over the sinigle 

 collector, expenses would not be anything like doubled, results 

 would be much more than doubled, and the worries (bar rows) 

 would be more than halved. In fact even if the componpnt 

 parts were not ideally suitable a combination is strongly to 

 be recommended. 



Even in a small amateur venture like mine, where the 

 object was to get a varied collection of rarities home, with 

 the smallest percentage of deaths possible, it is astonishing 

 how much there is of organization and arrangement herefnafter 

 to be called "bundobust" (both "us" as in gun more cor- 

 rectly spelt with "as" instead of "us"). 



First there is the caging and all that apertains thereto, 



