CHAPTER XXIX 



Small-game shooting in India — The season for this sport — Snipe offers best 

 sport — Arrival of these birds — Two varieties of true snipe — Other 

 kinds, the jack and painted snipe — Migratory birds — Large bag can 

 be made — Quail — Small charges and 20-bore preferable — ^River 

 and bush quail — Partridge — Three kinds — Painted, grey, and black — 

 The last best for table — Sand-grouse — Strong on the wing — Floriken 

 finest game bird in India — PecuUar habit of the cock — Native explana- 

 tion — Very plentiful in places — Indian bustard — A huge bird — Good 

 sport for rook rifle — Peafowl and Indian plover — Ortalon, too small 

 for sport — Snared by natives — Excellent eating — Wild-fowl — Many 

 kinds — Found on tanks — Very numerous — The blue-winged teal — 

 An excellent bird — Cotton and whistling teal — Not worth shooting — 

 Widgeon and pochards — Swarm in thousands — Mallard — Similar to 

 the EngUsh bird — The spotted bill and gadwaU — The pin-tailed duck — 

 The red-crested pochard and white-eyed duck — The shoveller — Wild 

 geese — Two varieties — The common or grey-bag, and the pink-footed 

 goose — A curious hybrid bird, haK goose and half duck — Bittern, same 

 as the English bird — Ground game — Hare only — No rabbits in India 

 — Hare afford good coursing with Persian hounds. 



The hunting of dangerous animals having been my business, 

 so to speak, for some years of my service in India, and my 

 chief amusement always, I have probably devoted less 

 time to small-game shooting than the majority of Indian 

 sportsmen. Nevertheless, there were occasional long 

 periods in my service, as when stationed in districts devoid 

 of big game, where I was compelled to satisfy my sporting 

 instincts with this less exciting form of sport ; hence, 

 necessarily acquired some knowledge of this subject. 



In these circumstances it has occurred to me that 

 having now said all I have to say on the subject of big- 

 game shooting in the Bombay Presidency, I cannot do 

 better than to give a brief description of the game birds 

 of this part of India, together with some account of small- 

 game shooting as carried out in India generally. 



The sport may be said to begin on or about the 15th 

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