June 1, 1900.] 
THE TROPICAL AaRICULTlUPjST, 
807 
" gatherinf; the rose buJs ^vlliIe ye may." I do 
think, by tlie bye, that the snipe shooter in 
("eylon wants a clicked f;iin, for on some days 
all the shots seem to be Jony ones, and I never 
found it the custom of the snipe anywhere to rise 
close to one's feet as they sometimes do in India, 
I used an " Ubique " wlsicdi is three-q'iarttr 
choked, as rerjards pattern, in both barrels, and 
found the possession of such a gun quite an advan- 
tage. I alho trietl an ounce ot JNo. 8, but soon 
went back to one and an eight ounce, as yon want 
all the shot yoci can use comfortably. We will now 
leave the " Doctor's Paddy-fields " remembering 
that it is there the keavy bags are to be made if 
any wliere, and visit one or two other spots round 
Kanthalai where one can always bag a few couple 
without difiiculty. Across the lake, i e. ab'out 
two miles by boat from the reathouse, the shore 
is edged with short turf with here and there 
patches of reeds. In a few places one will find 
small bushes near the water which are moist and 
shady underneath. All about this part of the 
lake there are quite a number of snipe ; they rise 
from the reeds or bushes and usually fly straight 
© it over the water so that sometimes they fall 
where it is tod deep to get them out. A boat 
should therefore be handy to recover dead birds, 
for Kanthalai abounds with fish-eaeles whicii are 
always on the lookout; and if a bird of any 
kind falls on the water and is not gathered at once, 
one of these ever- watchful osprey swoop; down 
and carries it off in triumph. I lost one or two 
teal and several snipe in this way. 
EAST OF KANTHAfAI 
and about a mile from it tiiere is another 
tank, along the edges of which one can shoot a 
good many snipe. The best way to reach the 
place is to walk about five hundred yards along 
the coach road from the rest-house in the direction 
of Trincomalee. and then turn oil' to the left along 
tire eastern shore of Kanthalai. A branch palii 
to the right takes one away for the Kanthalai 
shore through a gap in the " women's bund" to the 
smaller tank. The " women's bund" is so called 
because it was built entirely by female labour ; 
it skirts the eastern shore of Kanthalai and evi- 
dently the lake once was of considerably larger 
dimensions, as this bund, is now at its nearest 
point about a hundred yards from the shores of 
the lake, vjJien it is at its fullest. 
The smaller tank is very irregular in .shape, 
and has long stretches of grass here and tliere 
betvfeen the water and the jungle. This grass is 
iu some places very high, and consequently 
the place is beloved of pis' and wild bufTalo, while 
deer are also to be got round its shores , the 
snipe are all rounil the edges of the tank, 
but there is one place in particular where 
the shooting is very pretty. This is 
along the south bank where the hill side rises 
jungle-clad almost from the edge of the water; 
iJig forest trees, open underneath, grow near the 
tank and beneath their shade are strectlies of damp 
cool earth. During the hot part of the day the 
snipe sib under these trees, and on one's approach 
they dash out from beneath over the tank, giving 
the most charming shots. The walking as in 
fact all about Kanthalai 
(INCLUDING THE ." DOCTOR'S PADDY-FIELDS,") 
is quite easy, and one can shoot snipe 
under the most perfect conditions. You 
can go out in the early morning, bag a pig 
or cheetah, and then walking back round the 
edges of this tank shoot five or six couple of 
f;jlip, ancl then stioll bacck to the bungalow via 
the "women's bund" under shade the whole 
way, m time for breakfast. Both Kanthalai and 
the smaller tank abound with teal but it requires 
a certain amount of enginering to make a bag. 
The jungles too swarm with pigeons of three kinds";- 
one IS the small green pigeon, the second is about; 
tlie same size, bub is brightly coloured with an 
orange breast ; then there is a great big pigeon 
With a green back, and the rest of the body, 
with the, exception of a rufous patch at the vent, 
dove colour. By sitting under one of their 
favourite fruit trees one can bag any number 
of tlieae jiigeans. The difficulty is of course 
to find a tree they resort to. In some places they 
can be shot flighting to and from the trees ; 
bub undoubtedly the best way of getting sporb 
witli them would be to use a small bore rook 
rifle, and slioot them sitting. 
I killed about a hundred of them at Kanthalai, 
but most of them were killed sitting with a shot 
gun. I used to go and sit under a pigeon tree;, 
and wait for pigeons when I had had a hard 
morning's work after deer, and felt too slack 
to tackle the snipe, " Fleur-DE-Lys," ' 
— ^^sian, April 3, 
CEYLON PIGS BUILD HUTS. 
_Mi-. Gordon Reeves writes to the Field of ' 
March 17 as follows :— 
la your issue of January 27th last, your corra 
spondent, f'H.H.O." desorrbeF; a colony of pi>s and 
their dwellings ("huts"). Those pig-hut.^i are well- 
known to sportsman ia tha hill country of Oeylon, 
though I have never seen them in the plains, or heard 
ol them there. They are commonly found, and mora 
^lsually single,, on the forest and jimgle edges, where 
rank "msna" (lemar grass) ia found, and are com- 
posed of this grass. When , built in the forest itself, 
which is a more nnasnal procedure, thev are generally 
composed of " nilla, " a species of acanthus which 
forms the greater proporJiion of tho undergrowth at; 
elevations betv/een 3,000 to 5,000 ft. ' Having been d 
constant observer and hunter of pig for the last tweuaty 
five years, I have on more than one occasion witnessed 
the building of a hat, and on both occasions the work 
demanded the attention of two pigs. One pig simply 
Laid down, while number two grubbed up the grasa 
by the roots and heaped it over the recumbent one. 
1 cannot account for the fact that pig-huts in this 
country, are more frequently found single. I have on 
occasion found colonies of three and four, but tha 
almost invariable rule ia a single hu!;, They are not 
built for iamily purposes, for, although I have 
oocasionally turned out a single sow, I have much 
of tener found the huts -to be tenanted by boars. Their 
occupation d.o.es not appear to last more than a day 
or two, and then only during wet weather. I hava 
on one occasion known a v/ounded pig to take refuge 
in a hut. I had noiicecl the hat iir the morniug, and 
had also noticed that it was untenanted, .owing to its 
shape. Ou following up my pig, I at once recognised, 
by the dome shape of the hut, that ho had gone home- 
E. G. Reeves, 
Ratnatenne, Madnlkele, Ceylon, Feb, 21st, 
CLOSE OP THE INDIAN TEA SEASON. 
Total quantity of Tea passed througdr Calcutta 
from 1st April to end of Season: — 
lb. 1880-1900. 1898-1899. 1897-1898. 
Great Britain 1'19,374,1G4 133,381,722 133,782,962 
Foreign Europe 1,435.146 1,171,146 797 313 
America 5,923,404 3,273,096 2,086 369 
Asia 5,492,81.5 6,972,251 3,601,532 
Australia 8,250,4.36 6,398,002 6,802,579 
Total lb. 170,475,965 153,196,217 147,070,755 
