1344 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXI. 



the gun was limited to that. Shooting animals over crops gives both man 

 and animal a sporting chance, anyhow in the estimation of the native and 

 neither crops nor animals would be much the worse. The native however 

 looks a bit further ahead and works out the simple problem that if there are 

 no animals to shoot there will likewise be none to eat the crops. He, there- 

 fore, during the hot weather, when water is an absolute necessity and sport 

 (for him) an absolute certainty, sits over the very limited numbers of water 

 holes and makes use of his gun till there are no animals left to shoot. 

 Now it appears to me that there are not insurmountable difficulties to get 

 over and that a little local and if not sufficient, provincial legislation would 

 make this state of affairs impossible. Let the protector of crops have his 

 gun while his crops are in the ground and until they are reaped, which in 

 most cases would be for four months — June, July, August and September. 

 Let the native shikarry also have his gun for those four months as well and 

 he will be able to pit his cunning against that of the unfortunate deer 

 and the results of his labour will be sport and not slaughter. 

 (2) The village nets. 



These nets, kept in every village inhabited by Mariahs, and in many 

 other villages as well, are capable of catching any thing from a sun bird 

 to a full grown Nilgai. It is probable that these are not on view in the 

 same way when an official of the district is on tour, but in no case did 

 they consider it necessary to put them away on my approach. I met a 

 Mariah one day in the jungle and he explained their method of shikar 

 with nets. Villages band together, bring out all their men and all their 

 nets. After having arranged the nets in a run where animals pass, the 

 jungle is beaten towards these and any flesh is good for the Mariah pot. 

 'J he man told me that they had had a large beat a few days before, for 

 miles around, but had not seen anything. It is not difficult to understand 

 that game of all sorts under these circumstances must soon cease to exist. 

 As far as I could ascertain the sale of flesh is not the object in these 

 wilds, but the animals secured are divided with strict impartiality 

 between those concerned in the beat. I was a witness of one of these 

 partitions and the sport obtained was a jungle cat, a most unwholesome 

 looking animal, but this was carefully divided up and put on leaves in a 

 row. Nothing was wasted and the last of the flesh was being scraped off 

 the cheek and carefully put aside for some one when I came up. 



No doubt animal product is the property of these primitive jungle 

 fellows, but their methods are those of extinction and if they are not 

 restrained all animal life is bound to die out. The thriftless constructor is 

 prevented from ruining the jungle at the expense of Government or the 

 State and in his own interests the jungle man should be restrained from 

 exterminating game on which he partly exists. 



I also had occasion to see how birds fared at the hands of these ignorant 



