PREFACE 



FEW subjects of such comparatively circum- 

 scribed bounds have elicited more literature 

 than has Indian sport. Since the earliest days 

 of the European exploitation of our great 

 Eastern dependency, books dealing with this interesting 

 theme have followed one another in steady succession, 

 until every phase of Indian sport, or shikar to borrow 

 the Persian word so suitably and comprehensively de- 

 noting all forms of the pursuit of game has long since 

 been ably portrayed by such sportsmen and naturalists 

 as Forsyth, Sanderson, Baker, Gordon-Gumming, William- 

 son, Rice, Sterndale, Blandford, and others. 



This accumulation of works has apparently resulted in 

 the " last word " having been said, so that, except for those 

 who may be in search of the complete store of information 

 contained in the writings of these bygone giants in shikar^ 

 little remains to tempt further the public palate ; and 

 books of this class are now apt to be picked up in listless 

 fashion, a random page being idly turned to find, in the 

 time-worn references to jungles, nullahs, beaters, and those 

 exasperating shots " exactly through the heart," little more 

 than a butcher's bill eked out with businesslike hints as 

 how best to come within reach of the game, and what 

 means to employ in order to ensure its speediest downfall. 

 Besides this, fostered no doubt by the fact that the 

 majority of the standard works on the subject are far from 

 up to date, and deal with the India of a bygone day, there 



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