THE INDIAN EMPIRE 
kill or a water hole, and listening to the sounds of the jungle; but it entails 
a considerable amount of physical discomfort, not only from mosquitoes, 
but owing to the necessity of remaining absolutely still ; and it is not a form 
of sport that one cares to indulge in very often. 
The Ceylon game list includes elephant, buffalo, sambur, chital, 
leopard and sloth bear; but the tiger, strange to say, is not found in 
the island. The horns of the buffalo and stags run small, and elephant 
ivory is almost non-existent, so that there is not much to tempt the big 
game hunter in Ceylon. 
In addition to the big game of India, the chief varieties of which are 
briefly described in the following pages, the country provides the most 
excellent sport for the shot gun. In the winter months th ejheels, or marshes, 
are invaded by countless thousands of duck and snipe, which come down 
from the far north to avoid the cold weather. Good duck shooting is a 
sport that never palls; but tropical snipe are much more lethargic than 
those found in Europe, and in the middle of the day, when the sun is 
up, they fly poorly and do not offer interesting shots. One of the best 
localities for wildfowling is in Scind, not far from Karachi, where the 
Indus approaches the sea, and here big bags are made. 
The sand grouse is another bird that affords good sport, and one Christ- 
mas week, as the guest of the Maharajah of Bikanir, I had a grand time 
with them. The guns sit in butts round a lake for the morning and 
evening flight, as the birds approach to drink, and the sand grouse, as 
they come in from the desert fly high and fast, and offer shots that will 
test the skill of the best marksmen. We also secured many duck on the 
same lake by having them driven to us. 
On the foothills of the Himalayas the chikor affords good sport, and the 
fact that one is generally walking on the side of a steep hill when the birds 
skim over adds not a little to the difficulty of the shot. 
Pheasants of several varieties are found in the mountain forests, but 
they are difficult to drive owing to the size of the coverts. The peacock 
has a wide range in India, but can hardly be described as a very sporting 
bird, and it is as well to remember that the natives sometimes object to 
their being killed near the villages. 
There are also bustard, jungle fowl, partridges, quail and hares to 
be shot in many places; but it is always difficult to combine shot-gun 
shooting with the pursuit of big game for fear of disturbing the latter, and 
it is better to make a separate expedition for the purpose. 
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