SMALL GAME HUNTING WITH DOGS 



cats, palm cats, wild cats, porcupines, and jackals, accord- 

 ing to situation or elevation, exist, more or less, on almost 

 every estate in Ceylon, whilst pig, red deer, and elk can 

 be hunted on such estates as have forest boundaries. 

 Concerning the three latter I give an account further on, 

 in my chapters on pig, elk, and deer shooting. I am 

 not a " dog " expert, and know very little about them, 

 but the following short account of my own methods of 

 keeping dogs (a few only never more than three or four) 

 may be of some use to others. I have no experience of 

 the high elevation estates, where wet and cold are the 

 main things to guard against, but confine my observations 

 to the rather hot climate of the Matale Valley. 



To keep the dog-kennel, or house, free from vermin 

 I find nothing to beat a regular application of tar, inside, 

 walls, bench, and floor beneath it. To keep the dogs 

 vermin-free you need not be eternally washing them, but 

 give them a thorough rub-over every few weeks with 

 margosa oil. It stinks abominably, I admit, but it will 

 keep your dogs free from all vermin, and, to a great 

 extent, skin diseases of various sorts. 



Work your dogs pretty hard, or at least give them 

 any amount of exercise, and, if you want them really to 

 hunt, do not turn them into house-dogs. Bed them on 

 clean paddy-straw, rub them dry when they come in 

 wet, and last, but most important of all, give them plenty 

 to eat, including a good allowance of meat and bones. 

 I have found, for many years past, that a diet of equal 

 parts of boiled rice and " bovinia " (the latter being a 

 meal made of various Indian grains), with the meat and 

 bones from an ox-head, keeps my dogs in excellent con- 

 dition, and on it they can stand a vast amount of hard 

 work. 



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