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HUNTING & SHOOTING IN CEYLON 



It is, unfortunately, almost invariably impossible to 

 distinguish the sex of red deer, and, as the bucks are 

 extremely cunning, numbers of does are shot ; but the 

 species, being very prolific, breeding at all seasons, cannot 

 (in this province) be bagged without dogs, and possess 

 vast natural sanctuaries in the thousands of acres of scrub, 

 so there is not the slightest fear of its numbers being 

 appreciably reduced. 



I know one favoured spot where a certain sportsman 

 with a scratch pack bagged some thirty-seven deer during 

 his temporary stay of about six months. I hunted this 

 place some eight or ten months after he left and in one 

 morning ran no less than eleven deer, of which I bagged 

 three. There is very little description possible of this 

 experience. The country was new to me. I was placed 

 by a local Singhalese " shikari " on certain runs, the dogs 

 were put in at some distant spot, and after a patient 

 wait of from a quarter of an hour to two hours, some 

 yapping could be heard in dense lantana scrub. Standing 

 at the ready you would get an extremely difficult snap-shot 

 at a red flash, which I happened to bring off on three 

 occasions. In the last patch a sounder of pigs were put 

 up and I saw them climbing a steep face opposite me, out 

 of gun reach. 



A well-known Elkadua sportsman, owner of a very 

 nice little pack, some neighbours, and myself camped at 

 this village in 1904 for four or five days. The first 

 evening, with a retriever and two terriers, we found two 

 hares close to camp and we bagged one of them. Two 

 hundred yards on I got a long shot at a red deer, only 

 wounding it, but the dogs ran into it shortly after. 

 Next morning was blank owing to our not knowing the 

 cover. In the evening we tried in another direction 



