SMALL GAME HUNTING WITH DOGS 



match at Matale one afternoon (Saturday) I went on to 

 Beredewelle Estate to spend Sunday with my old friend 

 J. B. Tennant, 1 having sent my gun and the two little 

 bitches over with my " box " cooly. Two other cricketing 

 neighbours, both sportsmen, J. C. Tribe and S. K. Bousfield, 

 were also Tennant's guests. On Sunday morning we went 

 over the hill to Dullewa, intending to try for hare in the 

 chenas surrounding the clearings of an estate belonging to 

 Hodgson Bell, which, we knew, were generally sure finds. 

 Bousfield and I walked some distance ahead of the other 

 two, who were on horseback, we gaining on them up the 

 zigzag road by taking short cuts across bends. Just over 

 the hill-top, on the path going down into Dullewa hollow, 

 I put the dogs into a small bit of scrub (lantana), when 

 they soon treated us to a little burst of music and were not 

 long in turning out a hare, at which Bousfield got a double 

 shot but missed. After a bit of a check it was put out 

 again on my side, but my shot only succeeded in breaking 

 one of its hind legs and it got into the cover again, only 

 to be turned out once more, on my side, enabling me to 

 bag it. Tribe and Tennant then arrived, and just then 

 the dogs gave tongue again in same cover, running hard up 

 the hill then down again, in full cry. I was standing at the 

 lower side in a small, dry paddy field, when Tennant, who 

 was up on a bank above the scrub, called out to me that 

 the hare had come out and gone in again near me when my 

 attention was directed elsewhere. The dogs soon followed 

 up, and after awhile hunted it out near me again, and 

 this time I was ready, bowling it over at once. We then 

 went on to what we called " Long Island," being a long, 

 narrow coconut grove full of scrub, in patches, with short 

 grass spaces between, the whole almost surrounded by 

 paddy fields, isolating it from other uplands. Dogs soon 



33 c 



