INDIAN SHOOTING 347 



herds are, as a rule, fairly easy to get within shot of ; but a solitary 

 old black buck takes precious good care of himself, and as there 

 is rarely cover enough to stalk him without being seen, these 

 wary old gentlemen generally escape. The natives have many 

 methods of hunting antelope. Pursuing them with trained 

 chitas has been so often described that any detailed account 

 of it is unnecessary. It is interesting to see once, the chita's 

 speed being so amazing, but considered as sport it is poor fun. 

 Black buck are occasionally snared by sending tame bucks 

 among them with nooses attached to their horns. The wild 

 buck attacks the intruder, and gets caught by the horn. This 

 plan is also adopted for snaring ravine deer, but not often, as 

 the gazelle is said to be harder to train than the black buck. 

 The commonest way of snaring antelope is by covering about an 

 acre of ground thickly with nooses and driving a herd over it. 

 Trained bullocks are often used by native shikaris to enable 

 them to get within the close range they love for a shot ; and the 

 writer has seen the following curious method practised in Central 

 India. A trained buck and doe are taken out, each having a 

 light cord about ten yards long attached to it, and the pair are 

 led by an attendant, a light screen about three feet square made 

 of grass and leaves with a small hole in the centre being carried 

 by the shikari, and the whole party moves under cover of a 

 third man on horseback to within about three hundred yards 

 of a herd of antelope. The screen is then planted on a spot 

 commanding a good view ; the men on foot crouch behind it, 

 and the horseman rides slowly off to a flank. The tame deer 

 are then let out to the full extent of their lines on one side of 

 the screen, and begin playing round one another. The master 

 buck of the herd, seeing an impertinent intruder on his ground, 

 trots out at once to do battle for the doe, but the screen 

 puzzles him, so before coming close he generally circles round 

 to try and see behind it. As he moves the screen is shifted 

 round, the men scrambling round on hands and knees behind 

 it, and if there are two Englishmen bursting with suppressed 

 laughter in addition to the two natives, all scuffling round as 



