CHAPTER XX. 



POACHERS AND NUISANCES 



IN this list, various animals which prey upon 

 others will not be included ; some because they 

 themselves afford coveted trophies, and are there- 

 fore amongst the most valued game of the Indian 

 sportsman, as the tiger and the panther ; others, 

 again, are omitted on account of their rarity, which, 

 however bloodthirsty and successful a poacher each 

 individual may be, renders the total damage to 

 game, which is perpetrated by the whole species, 

 of small comparative practical importance. Take, 

 for instance, the Indian and Thibetan lynxes, and 

 also the Thibetan wolf (or chanko), which last is, 

 moreover, so well supplied with tame mutton, as 

 to rarely trouble himself to hunt for the sparsely- 

 distributed and extremely wary game animals 

 which roam the vast, inhospitable wastes of bleak 

 Thibet. 



Of the multitude of poachers which harry the 

 many species of large and small game in the con- 

 tinent of India, I am doubtful whether I ought 

 to award the palm for destructive power to the 

 Indian wild dog (Cuon rutilans], or to the class 

 of native whose object it is to slay, by any means 



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