246 DIARY OF A SPORTSMAN NATURALIST 



The curiosity of the deer is excited by the light and the 

 unusual sounds and they come up to investigate the 

 strange phenomenon, when they are promptly clubbed to 

 death or shot without reference to age or sex. 



BLACK BUCK 



The Noose Snare. The black buck is a dainty little 

 antelope inhabiting the plains of India, and frequenting the 

 cultivated country. The natives have various methods of 

 trapping this beautiful little beast. 



A common method is to tether on the ground a system 

 of nooses. A large number of pegs, to each of which a 

 noose made of gut is attached, are fixed to a line which may 

 be two hundred yards in length. The line of nooses is 

 pegged out some hundred yards from where a herd of buck 

 are feeding. The men then make a detour so as to get the 

 animals between themselves and the nooses. The buck are 

 then driven on to the nooses in which some of them get their 

 feet entangled. The snarers then run up and knock the 

 struggling animals on the head. 



The Fish-hook. A common device employed in the 

 Pilibhit district and elsewhere is infinitely more diabolical 

 and displays a fiendish cruelty. The apparatus is simple 

 and consists of a strong fish-hook baited with the bael fruit. 

 The hook is attached by a small piece of strong string, about 

 eighteen inches in length, to the middle of a small piece of 

 wood similar to that used by boys in England for playing 

 tip-cat. A number of these baited hooks are prepared and 

 scattered about in areas in which black buck are known 

 to feed. 



The little antelope is very partial to the bael fruit and 

 takes the bait greedily. The strong hook gets firmly caught 

 in the side of the mouth. To get rid of it the wretched 

 animal makes frantic efforts, pawing at the place with his 

 forefeet. This action sooner or later results in the string 

 attached to the hook slipping into and up the cleft of the 

 hoof, the piece of wood eventually stopping its further 

 progress. The impact of the wood against the hoof drives 

 the hook deeper into the flesh, at the same time causing the 

 tortured animal to fall to the ground where it lies struggling 

 convulsively until the fiends who are practising this devilish 

 form of hunting run up and club it to death. 



