HUNTING & SHOOTING IN CEYLON 



eagle, which was so gorged it could not move. We have 

 no vultures or scavenger birds in Ceylon except the crows, 

 but even they are scarce in the jungle country, finding a 

 much easier living near towns and villages. I have never 

 seen a jackal feeding on any remains, though I am well 

 aware that they do so feed, nor have I seen any signs of 

 bears doing likewise. 



To return to Sus cristatus ; my own experience has been 

 entirely confined to shooting them in the low country, not 

 by going for them particularly, but simply chance meetings 

 when in pursuit of other game, and, as a good pair of tusks 

 form a very excellent trophy, I never refuse a chance of a 

 shot at a good boar. 



They are not particularly wide-awake animals, and are 

 fairly easily approached, if the wind is properly allowed for, 

 as their power of scent at least is pretty good, so that there 

 is no great sport in the shooting of them, excitement, 

 difficulty, and danger being usually wanting. 



The trophy, of course, consists of the tusks, and these 

 usually average from 6 inches to 8 inches measured round 

 the outside curve, any pair over 8 inches being very good. 

 The tusks project about a third of their length beyond the 

 lips, the larger portion lying within the lower jaw bone in 

 a curve under the teeth. 



The longest pair I ever heard of from the low country 

 measured 9 inches, and were secured by Surgeon-Major 

 Hayman, when stationed at Trincomalee some years ago, 

 from a big boar he shot near Kantalay, but Mr. Clark in his 

 " Sport in the Low Country of Ceylon " records a 9f -inch 

 pair from a boar knifed by Mr. Thomas Farr, the veteran 

 Bogawantalawa planter and sportsman, at Ambawella. 



The biggest pair I ever secured measured 8^ inches, 

 but I once got one lO-inch tusk. 



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