

CHAPTER III 



BEATING FOR BEAR IN CHOTA NAGPUR — A STATION SHOOT 



" Mixed " shooting parties — The bundobast necessary for a Station shoot 

 — Beating for bear in March — Ordered to prepare the machans — 

 Bruin brought to book — The leopard and the goat — Bear country — 

 Bears as plentiful as blackberries — Tackling bear — Crows — The 

 Indian vulture and its habits — Bears' partiality for the mhowa 

 flowers — Incidents of the day's shoot — Several bears bagged — Usual 

 method of shooting bears — Bear caves — Beating bears out of caves — 

 Bears hard to kill — A day after bear — A. B.C. and his laugh — Success- 

 ful sport — A. B.C. and the bear — A perilous moment — The bear's 

 discomfiture — Failure to get him — A. B.C. explains — A good day's 

 bag. 



M 



IXED " shooting parties are not, perhaps, 

 greatly favoured by the keen shikari man. 

 In my experience such parties are commoner 

 in the cooler and less malarious climate of 

 North- Western India than in the Central and other parts 

 of the country. 



As an Assistant, however, I plead guilty to having thought 

 them great fun, the presence of some members of the fair 

 sex adding a piquancy to the proceedings not entirely due 

 to the sporting element. 



And what a business it is, a day's Station shooting picnic 

 when the ladies are included ! 



The bundobast necessary to ensure matters going smoothly 

 is terrific. It is not costly. It is not the expense of the 



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