78 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST, SOCIETY, Vol. XXVIII. 
again about 4 or 5 p.m. and staying till dark, or sometimes till after dark, 
Very big animal occasionally come and bask at night during the hot weather. 
When you have fixed your dates for shooting, get your outfit ready and engage 
a shikarri. Tell him to first obtain full details of road and river communication, 
especially in the Kosi district, and then to locate the favourite sandbanks of the 
crocodiles. Get these fixed on your map as accurately as possible by getting 
their direction from the nearest villages. Do not on any account trust to your 
shikarri’s ideas of distances, as he will cheerfully call five miles a kos or two miles. 
Having done this, engage your personnel and boat and fix your route roughly. 
I say roughly on purpose, because local or climatic conditions may force you 
to alter your plans. When you go crocodile shooting, wear breeches, as otherwise 
crawling about or going on all fours will be found painful to your knees. 
Breeches also save you from getting sun scorched if you are not accustomed to 
wearing shorts, especially if you are in a boat. A dark khaki shirt and ordinary 
pigsticker topie complete your outfit ; if you want to do it in style, add a pair of 
rubber soled shoes or boots to your kit. These are very useful when stalking, 
as, besides being noiseless they do not break dry twigs so readily as ordinary 
boots. Crocodiles are extremely keen of hearing and very sharp sighted, so one 
has to be careful to keep out of sight of them, and to avoid treading on dry 
twigs or grass if possible. In localities where people are constantly coming 
and going, such as near ghats, they become quite bold, and you can frequently 
' walk up to a point opposite them on the other bank, sit down comfortably and. 
pot one of them at your leisure. 
This, of ccurse, is only possible when the river is narrow enough to shoot across. 
Tf you are shooting along a river and travelling in a boat in preference to foot- 
slogging it along the banks, always follow the outside curve of a bend in the river, 
and keep close to the bank, as this enables you to see farthest head, and 
also makes it easier to disembark quickly, as frequently one comes across an 
animal that is not visible till you approach quite close to it, and if you have 
then to come in from somewhere about midstream, and happen to be going 
down current as well, you are on to the animal before you can come ashore. 
This is obviated by sending scouts well ahead, one on each bank, to warn you. 
When you arrive in the vicinity of the first bank, go forward and from a dis- 
tance examine the plan and the animals carefully with your binoculars, select 
your animal and the best place to shoot it from. 
You will usually find that a short snouter, if on the opposite bank, is bolder 
than a long snouter, and may be more easily approached, but if on the same side 
of the river as yourself, the long-snouter is the bolder. If you have to stalk for 
position, walk up till you can, just see them from a crouching position, and then 
drop on all fours. If your glasses are in a sling case, you had better discard them 
here, as they will impede you and are apt to disturb the animals by bumping 
against your knees. For some reason or other a crocodile does not seem to object 
to your approaching on all fours nearly as much as if walking. You can fre- 
quently get to within 80 or 100 yards of them over absolutely open country if 
you go on all fours. When you have gone as near as possible like this, Jie down 
flat and imagine you are a worm and crawl as close as you can under cover. 
Going like this you require very little, or low cover. A few sprigs, blades of 
corn in the puggari of your helmet are a great assistance in stalking. I may 
remark here, that it is advisable to have a foresight protector of a kind that 
closes the muzzle of your rifle and prevents it getting filled with sand or mud 
for this sort of stalking, as otherwise sand is bound to get in and then you have 
to clean it out. All this means unnecessary movements on your part, which 
you wish to avoid. When you have got as near as possible, slowly erect your 
rifie rest, which should be adjustable. I use a pointed stick with nails driven 
in three inches apart. If you are a humane person, don’t shoot without the 
