HUNTING & SHOOTING IN CEYLON 



bursting with pride. From that moment my " hobby " 

 became developed, and shooting has been my principal 

 recreation and delight ever since. 



I then spent about two hours perambulating the paddy 

 fields, firing altogether nineteen shots and bagging no 

 less than eight snipe, all with this heavy gun having 

 no second barrel available. I began to have rosy visions 

 of myself as a crack snipe shot, and naturally considered 

 that I could very considerably improve on this first effort, 

 but I did not! During my first season, I bagged alto- 

 gether 164 snipe for an expenditure of 393 shots, equal 

 to 41.75 per cent, of kills, all in the local paddy fields. 

 The next season I find I killed, also mostly in the local 

 fields, which never held many birds, 146 snipe for 295 

 shots, equivalent to 49.5 per cent., and I certainly have 

 not done better in average since, though I have, of 

 course, become possessed of more serviceable guns than 

 the one I mentioned. It may be that I did not go in 

 for it sufficiently strongly, for I was never anything 

 but a " potterer " as far as snipe shooting is concerned, 

 being content with a morning's shoot and a bag of 10 

 or 12 couple at any time, even in the teeming low 

 country, usually preferring some other branch of sport 

 for the rest of the day. However, I always enjoyed my 

 shooting, probably the more because I never made a 

 labour of it, and I know of nothing pleasanter than a 

 few days in a good snipe ground. An incident which 

 once occurred in the low country is perhaps worth re- 

 cording. Two or three years ago I and my friend 

 and neighbour H. D. Garrick " biked " to Haburane 

 (47 miles) for a week-end after snipe. We arrived at the 

 rest-house in time for eleven o'clock breakfast, and, in 

 the afternoon, tramped round various tanks and paddy 



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