58 GLIMPSES OF INDIAN BIRDS 



are hurting their victim, or that it can feel ? They 

 have never been taught that it is most painful to 

 be torn to pieces, and they themselves have not 

 experienced the sensation. How, then, are they to 

 understand that it hurts ? An Indian coolie, even, 

 does not appear to appreciate the fact that birds can 

 feel pain, for when accompanying a man out shooting 

 he will pick up a winged snipe or duck and put it, 

 while still alive, in the game stick and leave it there 

 to die a lingering death. Now, I readily admit that 

 the Indian villager is not overburdened with brains, 

 but he is capable of simple reasoning, which is more 

 than can be said of any bird. He certainly is not 

 conscious that by putting the head of a live bird 

 into a game stick he is causing unnecessary pain ; 

 much more are birds of prey ignorant of the fact that 

 being eaten alive is a most painful experience. 



A crowd of vultures gathers round a stricken animal 

 in almost as short a space of time as a mob of gaping 

 Londoners collects round the victim of an accident. 

 Recently, in the course of a shoot in the Terai, the 

 man in the machan next to mine shot a spotted 

 deer, which fell lifeless in an open patch in the forest. 

 By the time the line of beaters had reached our 

 machans fifteen or sixteen vultures had assembled 

 round the dead stag, and it was with difficulty that 

 we, from our machans, kept the greedy birds off the 

 carcase. 



Vultures are always to be found at the burning 

 ghat. Wood is expensive in many parts of India, 

 so that only the more wealthy completely burn the 



