HUNTING & SHOOTING IN CEYLON 



shots. This morning, however, I made up arrears a bit. 

 My coolies, pluckers, and manurers were all in the bunga- 

 low field, so, when visiting them, as the ground was damp 

 I took my dogs out, with the result that in less than an 

 hour I bagged two hares and a mongoose, the dogs work- 

 ing well and holding the scent without a falter." 



I have literally hundreds of such-like incidents recorded 

 in my old diaries, vastly interesting to me when looking up 

 reminiscences of years ago. 



Speaking of the habits of hares when hunted, I think 

 their commonest and most successful trick, and one which 

 baffles dogs to the utmost out here, is to break into a tea 

 field, and, after running here and there for some time, to 

 suddenly squat under a tea bush as still as a corpse. I 

 have, time after time, seen the dogs run past a hare so 

 squatted within two feet and never see it, the extra "whiff" 

 of scent thus got only exciting them to rush more madly 

 forward. If the hare remains in this way dead still it is 

 perfectly safe, if unseen by the shooter, or unless some 

 painstaking dog works its way slowly along the scent, when 

 " Mr. Lepus " may be dropped on. These hares take a 

 good deal of killing sometimes, and can carry a lot of 

 shot, necessitating the use of both barrels very often, unless 

 you are using a largish size like No. 4 or 5. I have more 

 than once seen a hare running hard on the bones of its 

 broken fore-legs for some distance, before dropping dead. 



Such a thing as this must mean that their sense of pain 

 cannot approach that of human beings a man with both 

 legs broken would not only be unable to move, but, more 

 than likely, be insensible with pain and shock. Another 

 account of a run, or rather a series of runs, with Vic and 

 Patch, a real " red-letter " day, may be of interest, and is 

 certainly worth recording: After playing in a cricket 



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