GAME AND GROWING CROPS. 137 



are apt to feed more by night than during daylight, 

 and get themselves away to their lairs with the dawn. 

 Depredations to growing crops in gardens and fields, 

 when human habitations are near, are also almost 

 exclusively committed by night: and long before day- 

 light the plunderers have retired to their fastnesses 

 in the forest. 



So serious are the depredations of game to crops 

 in many wild countries, that at the time when the 

 grain is growing, considerable numbers of the popula- 

 tion are obliged to sit up by night to watch their 

 fields, so as to save their crops from destruction; and 

 did time or space permit, many curious legends might 

 be related of the hardships which the native farmers 

 are exposed to in endeavouring to carry out this duty. 



All over India for instance, in districts lying con- 

 tiguous to jungle tracts, it is the usual practice for 

 the native cultivators to post watchmen to protect 

 their fields from wild animals, by night, when game 

 is numerous. These men keep up a continual clatter 

 throughout the hours of darkness, to scare away these 

 unwelcome intruders, from whose visits the advent of 

 the dawn alone brings relief; for the jungle animals 

 are cunning enough to know that they carry on their 

 depredations almost with impunity, so long as their 

 movements are concealed under cover of darkness, but 

 they are always most careful not to allow themselves 

 to be overtaken in their forays by daylight, by which 

 time they may be miles away from the scene of their 

 predatory excursions of the previous night. 



Where heavy game are known to visit cultivated 

 lands in this sort of way, many a good night's sport 

 may be got by watching for them at places to which 



