1075 
SHIKAR NEAR AND AROUND POONA. 
BY 
Major W. B. Trevenen. 
In commencing this article I would first of all warn all readers who have 
shot in such favoured parts as are to be found in Sind, parts of the United Pro- 
vinces, Central Provinces and other districts, and who are accustomed to bring 
home bags of 100 head or more a day, that if they expect the same in this district 
and are not content with much smaller results, they had better read no further. 
During a period of nearly five years, during which time I have shot here 
regularly throughout each season, I have come to the conclusion that if a bag 
of 20 head per gun is obtained, such days may be considered good. The two best 
days I have had, were 69 and 73 head, the first occasion being in the cold weather 
of 1919-20 with two guns, and the second in the last cold weather with three 
guns, one gun however being only responsible for 7 head ! 
On both the above occasions the bag chiefiy consisted of duck and snipe. 
To my mind, one of the chief charms of small game shooting in this district 
is the variety of species of game to be met with, although their numbers may 
not compare favourably with other places. This is a fact which should appeal 
to the sportsman who is also a naturalist. As an instance, there are ten different 
kinds of Quail which it is possible to obtain. Eight of these varieties I have 
actually shot, but two of them, the Painted Bush Quail (Microperdix erythro- 
rhyncus), and the Eastern Painted Bush Quail (Microperdix blewitti ) I have 
not succeeded in bringing to bag as yet although I must have tramped nearly 
500 miles in search of them. As however ‘ Hume and Marshall’ and Finn both 
state that the former has been shot near Poona, and it is possible that the latter 
might also rarely occur, I include them both in the list of “ possibles.” During 
the time I have been in Poona, I have shot fourteen varieties of duck and teal. 
Also in the cold weather of 1918-19 one goose, the Dwarf Goose (Anser eryth- 
ropus) which bird is rarely met with even in other parts of India. Hume 
and Marshal] only record the occurrence of 9 birds. I have also seen both the 
Comb Duck, or Nukta (S. melanonotus), and the Bar-headed Goose (A. 
indicus), but have not succeeded in shooting either of them in these parts. 
One of the latter I saw only a very short time ago in company with two 
Brahminies (C. rutila). I spent nearly three hours trying to get within 
range but eventually all three birds settled on an island where it was 
absolutely impossible to reach them without a boat. The Goose appeared 
to be by far the most confiding of the three, the Brahminies in each case 
giving the alarm. 
The usual varieties of Snipe, Pin-tail, Fan-tail and Jack are all fairly com- 
mon. As a rule the first to arrive in these parts is the Pin-tail which predomi- 
nates in numbers at the commencement of the season, whilst towards the end 
of the cold weather a greater number of Fan-tail generally appears in the bag. 
This season however has been an exception in this respect as regards the 
first arrivals, most of the snipe shot up to the middle of November being Fan- 
tails. This may possibly be accounted for by the fact that birds were unusu- 
ally late this year, and that possibly the majority of the first detachment from 
the East may have halted on their way owing to the super-abundance of water 
this season, and that the Northern contingent (Fan-tail) which usually arrive 
here later, were the actual first arrivals. 
It is a curious fact that although the present season is abnormally late and 
birds hitherto very scarce and only now coming in in any numbers (November 
10th), yet both in the case of snipe and duck, I got my first bird earlier than 
in former years, the first snipe coming to bag on September 22nd and the first 
