250 DIARY OF A SPORTSMAN NATURALIST 



and seizes the goat. The action releases the trap-door, 

 which clangs down and the animal is a prisoner. His ulti- 

 mate fate will then depend upon whether he is more 

 valuable dead or alive. If he can be sold to a neighbouring 

 Raja, many of whom keep menageries, his life will be 

 spared ; otherwise his death follows on capture. I have 

 seen leopards caught in this manner. It is common. The 

 expression on the trapped animal's face is usually more of 

 baffled rage mingled with shamefacedness that he should 

 have been outdone in cunning by man, than of fear. 



A simpler contrivance is a stone or log, so placed that a 

 goat can be tethered under it. The least attempt to pull at 

 the goat results in the stone crashing down and killing the 

 leopard. This method is very commonly practised. Mr. 

 Wyndham tells me that a man in Kumaon recently brought 

 him in three leopards he had killed by this means. 



The Loaded Gun Trap. -Sir S. Eardley Wilmot mentions 

 this trap as in use in the United Provinces. The leopard's kill 

 is placed in a zareba of thorns. Across the opening a gun 

 loaded with buckshot is placed in position and sighted. To 

 the trigger a long silken thread is fixed and stretched across 

 the front of the zareba at the height of the animal's chest, 

 the other end being tied to a tree or other convenient 

 purchase. As the leopard comes up to the kill the pressure 

 of his chest against the thread fires the gun and the charge 

 is sent into the animal's side. If the leopard has achieved the 

 reputation of being almost superhumanly cunning, instead 

 of the thread a weight may be arranged to fall at the least 

 touch on to a tight cord attached to the trigger. 



JACKALS 



The Trap-door Cage. Jackals are trapped by the trap- 

 door cage method already described under the leopard. 



The Call Method. In the United Provinces a practice in 

 vogue amongst the Kanjars and others for killing jackals is 

 by calling them up. A native takes up his position outside 

 a cane field armed with a branch of a tree, a call, and a 

 couple of dogs whom he hides. He then starts calling to the 

 jack, waving the branch in front of his mouth. This latter 

 action breaks the sound of the call and renders it more 

 natural. As soon as the jack comes close enough the dogs 

 are set loose at him. 



