HUNTING & SHOOTING IN CEYLON 



and wonderful kind of bellow quite indescribable. 

 The breeding season is about the same in the different 

 provinces, and the close seasons, as marked on the 

 game licences (see chapter on Licences, &c.), may be 

 taken as representing approximately the breeding seasons. 

 Man and leopards are the only enemies these beauti- 

 ful creatures have to fear in Ceylon, as we have 

 no wild dogs or wolves, and I do not think jackals 

 ever attempt an attack, being content with much 

 smaller game such as hares, fowls, lizards, crabs, and 

 carrion. 



I have had many opportunities of observing that spotted 

 deer have not a very keen sense of smell as compared to 

 many other wild animals, but this is compensated for by 

 their extraordinary powers of sight and hearing. 



Curiously enough a herd of does may be fairly easily 

 approached to within a very short distance with ordinary 

 precautions, but if a buck be present in the herd the vigil- 

 ance of the does is extreme, and if a stalk be necessary 

 it must be conducted with the utmost care. I usually 

 wear clothes of a dark-green cloth during my shooting 

 excursions, and on one occasion, to test my invisibility 

 with a background of forest, the wind being right, I 

 actually got to within 40 yards of a herd of does 

 absolutely in the open, taking no advantage of any cover 

 in doing so. The animals were in a small " park " which 

 I had just entered, and, by walking very quietly, stopping 

 immovable when any one of them lifted its head, I man- 

 aged to get to within the above-mentioned distance before 

 I was discovered and the alarm given. If by chance you 

 should come suddenly into view of a herd of deer, or indeed 

 of almost any animal, absolute immobility will often enable 

 you to escape detection, a prolonged scrutiny generally 



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