SMALL GAME HUNTING WITH DOGS 



either, but still they knew what a hare was, and when, 

 after some two or three months 1 patient work, I got them 

 to understand that hunting was their business, they lived, 

 from that time forward, for nothing else, the keenest of 

 the keen. I also had, at that time, another curious bitch 

 known as " Carbolic," so named, I think, because she 

 owed her recovery from a bad attack of mange, in her 

 youth, to a liberal treatment of carbolic oil (i.e. olive oil 

 or sweet oil containing a small percentage of carbolic acid). 

 She was by a pariah out of an English bull-terrier bitch, 

 and, in appearance, was a rather large, good-looking black- 

 and-tan terrier with somewhat of a " bull-terrier" shaped 

 head. She took to hunting very keenly at first, but soon 

 found herself rather large for working the lantana scrub. 

 She then, entirely " on her own," adopted the curious plan 

 of standing quite silent by me, whilst the other two worked 

 the cover, absolutely quivering all over with excitement, 

 never even breaking silence when they found and gave 

 tongue, but the moment the hare broke she was after 

 it like a shot, uttering shrill, excited yelps. If I killed 

 a hare she would stand over it, merely licking it all over 

 and keeping the other two, inveterate "worriers," off. 

 If wounded and still running she would inevitably run it 

 down, and many is the hare I owe to her, run down, or 

 found in cover having got away badly wounded. I always 

 carry a gun on chance when I take my dogs out, though 

 I may not get a shot, sometimes, for a week ; it keeps a 

 man in form, however, and quick " on the drop." Here 

 is a typical account of a successful morning's stroll round 

 the estate, taken from my diary : " On my round this 

 morning I took my dogs out as usual, and soon put them 

 into a small patch of scrub in the middle of a native 

 dry-grain clearing adjoining the * Dehipitiya ' tea field. 



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