HUNTING & SHOOTING IN CEYLON 



you can screw it up or down to admit of aiming under 

 the mark you want to hit (equivalent to a fine sight), or, 

 as I prefer it, of covering the spot with the fore-sight. 



To return to our game : that evening was to be rather 

 a memorable one to myself and Brockman. 



After sending the buck back to camp we went on, and 

 soon after Brockman, seeing something moving in some 

 undergrowth, fired at it and was grieved to find it merely 

 a spotted doe. The meat went to camp, however, and we 

 again pushed on, meeting some time after with the adven- 

 ture with two buffaloes recorded in my chapter on buffalo 

 shooting. Thus between 4 o'clock and 6 o'clock P.M. we 

 bagged a spotted buck, a spotted doe, and two buffaloes, 

 a rather unusually large bag for Ceylon, even for a whole 

 day's shooting. 



The following account gives a fair idea of the stalking 

 of a herd of deer, after sighting them, to get a good clear 

 shot. I was out with two guides in some fine country in 

 Tamankaduwa, consisting of groups of lovely little parks 

 separated from each other by little, or big, as the case may 

 be, belts of jungle, these parks being abandoned little tanks 

 or ancient village sites as usual. In one of these glades we 

 sighted a small herd of deer about 200 yards away, only 

 their heads and occasionally the tops of their backs being 

 visible above the grass and small bushes. 



Leaving the two men I went for the stalk, first getting 

 some small trees between me and the deer, to which I 

 walked very quietly. Arrived at the trees, I peered round 

 and found my game undisturbed but still not offering a 

 clear shot, though I was enabled to locate a decent buck 

 amongst them. Scanning the ground ahead, I marked some 

 bushes and another small tree which offered a fair cover, 

 and from which I judged I could get a clear view of the 



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