112 



TREED BY A WILD BUFFALO. 



OPINIONS differ as to the best time for buffalo hunt- 

 ing. Some prefer the dry months of March and 

 April. Water, it is argued, is then scarce, and the 

 herds don't stray far from known water-holes. 

 Much depends, I think, on locality. Buffaloes are 

 big feeders and you may have water-holes but no 

 grass, and then you are not likely to get buffaloes 

 as they are slow travellers, and will not go long 

 distances away from food to drink. For myself, I 

 like September and October in the forests of Chota 

 Nagpore. Then the rice-fields are one sheet ol 

 green, and knee-deep with water from the monsooi 

 rains ; and there is nothing these huge brutes lik< 

 so much as a feed on the young rice and a wallow ii 

 the unctuous clay. Indeed, the damage they cau< 

 by wallowing in the rice flats is greater than thai 

 they do by eating the young shoots of rice, as th< 

 natives say that this nibbling off of the top blad( 

 makes the rice plant throw out more grain-bearin{ 

 shoots. In Gangpore, Sarunda and the southen 

 parts of Chota Nagpore, wild buffaloes come dowi 

 from the hills immediately after the rains set in, an< 

 can generally be found near the little patches o1 

 rice cultivation dotted here and there in the den< 



