HUNTING & SHOOTING IN CEYLON 



long agOv been exterminated in the drought-smitten low 

 country. It is only a question of time, however. 



The animals must have water, and their instinct seems 

 quite powerless to teach them to migrate into the country 

 of perennial rivers when the drought sets in, nor does it 

 teach them to avoid a pool at which they have been pre- 

 viously shot at. The same animals will return to the same 

 pool day after day, or night after night, merely coming 

 later than usual after a disturbance. 



On the whole, watching at a water-pool, if not very 

 sportsmanlike, is intensely interesting to an observer of 

 nature, and I recommend any one, getting the chance of a 

 watch at an undisturbed remote pool, to be in his place not 

 later than 2 P.M. if he wishes to see all that is to be 

 seen. 



There is also a very appreciable spice of danger in rock- 

 hole watching, where the watcher has to take his place on 

 the rock itself, protected or hidden only by a semicircular 

 wall of loose stones about 2 feet high behind which he 

 sits ; and moreover, if the position is such that a rock 

 background cannot be got for the shot, it will be rendered 

 ten times more difficult and uncertain by the black back- 

 ground of forest. The grey rock shows up most animals 

 well, so that in Ceylon it makes easier shooting if the 

 watcher can watch from a tree, and thus shoot downwards 

 at an angle. 



The danger of the ground watching lies in the chance 

 of any animal like a bear, leopard, buffalo, or elephant of a 

 wicked disposition coming to the water up wind, scenting 

 the watchers and going for them, which might very easily 

 happen, though luckily the animals usually come down 

 wind, making if necessary a detour to enable them so to 

 approach the water. The unexpected, however, may occa- 



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