POACHERS AND NUISANCES 



turning out, on ground inhabited by wild herds, of a 

 tame buck with nooses fastened to his horns. The 

 natural pugnacity of a wild buck induces him to try 

 conclusions with the intruder, with the result, of 

 course, that the former's horns are entangled, and 

 he is then easily despatched. 



By this method, bucks only are taken, but another 

 plan for the wholesale capture of the animals, with- 

 out regard to sex or age, is practised with only too 

 much success in parts of Mysore. A large number 

 of natives, each with a long cord, to which at 

 intervals nooses of strong gut are attached, proceed 

 together to a place towards which the configuration 

 of the ground renders it probable that a herd 

 inhabiting the vicinity may be successfully driven. 

 The cords are then firmly pegged down in a long 

 and often double line (the second some yards 

 behind the first), and the men, by making a very 

 wide circuit, endeavour to get round the herd, and 

 to drive it in the desired direction, when, should 

 the operation prove successful, several of the 

 animals are often caught by the legs, and promptly 

 butchered by the poachers. Pit-falls, dead-fall 

 traps, nooses set in various ways, and numberless 

 devices, too manifold to enter upon here, are 

 employed with variable success to reduce wild 

 animals into possession ; while the wholesale 

 capture (by highly successful methods) of all 

 edible game birds and wild fowl, forms a never- 

 failing source of income to the professors of the 

 art. 



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