HUNTING & SHOOTING IN CEYLON 



June is usually too early and September is sometimes too 

 late. Artificial lights are not a success, so you must 

 depend on the moon, and should begin your trip when the 

 moon is about in its first quarter, continuing, if time per- 

 mits you, to watch, using the moon until about two days 

 after the full. 



As a weapon there is nothing to beat a 12-bore, prefer- 

 ably a gun of the "Paradox" type, but any 12-bore that 

 will take ball is good enough, as it is all close-quarter 

 shooting. As a night-sight I have found nothing to beat 

 a sleeve of white cloth about a foot long slipped tight over 

 the muzzle-end of the gun by being sewn to fit, or better 

 still a strip of cloth the full width of the barrels fastened 

 by elastic bands at the back. This is especially good for 

 a jungle country like Ceylon, where the shadows are so 

 pronounced. 



And now being comfortably settled, having everything 

 in order, let us take note of what we see. The Alut Oya 

 is a "jungle drain," a small river running over a sandy or 

 rocky bed, entirely dependent on rainfall, and dry, or re- 

 duced to a few pools, throughout the dry season. Its 

 course lies entirely through forest, and so is overhung by 

 trees all along. About an eighth of a mile or less from 

 my stage farther down stream there is a huge pool of 

 water in a rocky gorge ; but the curious thing is that 

 animals will never go to a big pool if there is a small one 

 available. Given a large pool of good clean water, and 

 50 yards away a filthy puddle of liquid mud, animals 

 will come to the latter in preference whether they like 

 the mud or it accords more with their ideas of caution I 

 cannot say. 



In the present case there is no pool at my watching- 

 place, only a sandy hollow in the river-bed in which animals 



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