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the birds to rise high, and get well on the wing. This is some-gale and a full moon, but they cannot be depended on times attained by cutting away the undergrowth at the end of the covert where it is purposed to flush the birds, but this is also liable to make them break back over the beaters. Where pheasants exist in large quantities, "false coverts" of spruce or fir loppings should always be placed at the flushing-point; the birds should be collected as quietly as possible in these, and then sent forward over the guns in small quantities at a time.

Black. game.

to stay more than a few hours in the locality where they alight. In Ireland, however, they are far more constant Woodcock. in their habits, and it is here that the largest bags of woodcock are made in the United Kingdom. Though woodcock are properly forest, or covert-haunting birds, in many parts of Ireland and the Western Highlands of Scotland they frequent the open bogs and moors, where they are shot over pointers or setters. Otherwise no particular rules can be laid down for their pursuit, beyond the fact that they are very conservative in their choice of a haunt, and that year after year cock may be found in the same spot. Woodcock are usually esteemed difficult birds to shoot, but more are missed from over-eagerness on the part of the shooter than from the difficulty of the shot they present. Still in thick covert they undoubtedly require 'a quick hand and eye acting in unison, to kill them neatly. Of quadrupeds or ground-game, only three varieties, the

Of other recognized British game-birds-as distinct from wildfowl-it is only necessary to dwell on the most beautiful of them all, blackgame. These, though far more widely diffused than the red grouse, are not nearly so numerous. This is possibly due to altered agricultural conditions, the laying to pasture of much of the arable land which formerly fringed the Lowland moors, and the consequent surface-drainage which is responsible for the destruction of many young birds; but the chief cause lies in the wholly inefficient close-time afforded, which should be extended by at least a month. Black-roe-deer, the hare and the rabbit, are preserved for sport with game- and grouse-shooting differ in no way in their methods, though the former are far more difficult birds to handle by driving, while really fascinating sport can be obtained by stalking the old cocks with a miniature rifle.

Ptarmigan are practically confined to the summits of the higher Scottish hills, which are usually reserved for deer-forests, and, therefore, offer no opportunity for sport with the Ptarmi shot-gun. In mild still weather they give but poor gan. sport, running persistently in front of the dogs, or sitting until they can almost be knocked down with a stick, but on stormy days they rise wild, and afford splendid sport, especially in conjunction with the wild and romantic scenery in which they are found. They are of course invariably shot over dogs. Capercally, once extinct in Great Britain, were reintroduced into Scotland about 1835, and now exist in tolerable numbers, chiefly in Perthshire. Being a forest-haunting bird, Caper they are usually driven to the guns like pheasants, but cally. apart from their rarity and size, they are not held in great favour as sporting birds, while owing to the great damage they do to young coniferous trees, they are not encouraged to multiply on estates where there is a large acreage of growing plantations. Capercally are very courageous birds, and the writer has seen a winged cock attack and hold at bay a dog sent to retrieve it.

Snipe and woodcock, though properly wild-fowl, are usually regarded as belonging to the category of game-birds. Though both the full-snipe and the woodcock breed to a limited Salpe. extent in the British Isles, they may more correctly be described as autumn and winter migrants to them. The varieties then to be shot are the full-snipe, the jack-snipe and the great or solitary snipe; but the latter is exceedingly rarely met with, and the jack-snipe is becoming scarcer every year. Neither of these latter varieties breeds in the United Kingdom. Snipe are exceedingly erratic in their movements, which are largely influenced by the weather; like the woodcock they are here to-day and gone to-morrow. They haunt moist, or marshy localities, and the finest snipe shooting in the British islands is to be found on the Irish bogs. In hard frosts they should be sought near running water. As a general rule a dog is not used to find snipe, but where this may be considered necessary, a well broken Irish water-spaniel is to be recommended. These are the most intelligent of dogs, can be trained to point and retrieve as well, and are capable of standing wet and cold with impunity. It is a generally accepted axiom that snipe should be walked up, down wind, since they offer an easier mark when rising against it, but in the writer's experience this is more than counterbalanced by the fact that snipe, which are particularly susceptible to noise, lie far better when approached up wind. To kill snipe well is the most difficult knack in shooting, and one to which few men, however good shots they may be at other forms of game, rarely attain.

Woodcock are rarer birds than snipe, and even more erratic in their movements. Large quantities of them usually arrive in England with the first November combination of an easterly

the shot-gun in the United Kingdom. The firstRoe-deer. named, though found in a few widely distant districts in England and Ireland, is chiefly associated with Scotland so far as shooting is concerned. It is essentially a forest-loving animal, and is usually killed by driving it up to a line of guns, when, if close enough, it will drop to an ordinary charge of No. 5 shot; but a heavy load of B.B. or No. 1 is a far preferable, and more merciful, gauge to use. Roe-deer are not easy animals to move in a direction in which they suspect danger, and the more quietly a drive is conducted, the greater the chance of success. A few men walking carelessly through a wood, i.e. as if beating were not their object, will drive roe, and especially the cunning old bucks, with far greater certainty than an array of shouting, stick-rapping beaters.

Far finer sport, however, in every sense of the expression, can be obtained by stalking roe-bucks during the summer months with a small bore rifle, carrying a hollow-nosed, and not a solid bullet. The most suitable opportunity for this is at sunrise or sunset, when the roe will be found, feeding in the more open spaces in the woods. The same animals will nearly always be found in the same locality, but they are exceedingly wary creatures, and the old bucks are quite as difficult to stalk as a red-deer stag.

The hare no longer exists in the same quantities as formerly; indeed in many parts of Great Britain it is practically extinct, the result of the Ground Game Act of 1881. No Hares. special methods are employed for shooting hares, nor is any great skill requisite for doing so, but sportsmen should always bear in mind that unless hit in the head or heart hares are not easily killed dead, and should, therefore, refrain from firing long shots at them, especially when they do not offer a broadside shot.

It is to be presumed that the Ground Game Act was specially directed-and with reason-against rabbits more than hares, but the former show little or no evidence of being Rabbits. affected by it. Yet from every point of view, except perhaps that of shooting, they are far less valuable, and more noxious, animals, which ravage alike the young plantations of the landlord and the crops of the tenant farmer. Where they are preserved in large numbers, the most usual method of shooting them is to ferret them out of the burrows as short a time as possible before the day fixed for shooting, and then fill in the mouths of the holes with well beaten soil, which should also be drenched with paraffin or tar to deter the rabbits from digging their way in again. If this be carefully done, and plenty of covert-coarse grass, bracken or gorse-be available, in fine dry weather the rabbits will lie out for two or three nights, but in the event of heavy rain or especially snow, nothing will prevent them going to ground again. Where natural covert is scarce, it can be supplemented by strewing brushwood and fir-loppings under which rabbits will readily shelter. In beating for rabbits, the beaters should not merely tap with their sticks, but should thrust them into the clumps of grass and underwood; otherwise many rabbits will be passed over. When rabbits are driven up

to a line of guns in covert, the latter-if no winged game is expected should stand just inside the edge of the wood, with their backs to the beaters, and take the rabbits after they have passed. This not only induces the rabbits to face the open, but precludes the possibility of an accident to the beaters. Capital sport can be enjoyed in the summer evenings by stalking rabbits with a pea-rifle in a suitable locality, i.e. where no danger to human beings or live-stock can be caused by a stray or deflected bullet. A disused quarry or sand pit is an ideal place for such sport.

Wildfowl.

One branch of shooting remains to be touched on, namely, wild-fowling, which again must be classed under two totally distinct headings, shore or flight shooting, and shooting afloat with a swivel punt gun. In flight shooting, the sportsman stations himself at a point over which the birds will probably pass at sundown or daybreak in their passage from or to the sea, when going to or leaving their inland feeding places. Success in flight-shooting must, therefore, depend very largely on chance or luck, but given a fair proportion of the latter, it is a fine, wild sport. One essential requirement is a well-trained and thoroughly intelligent dog, and here again no better can be selected than an Irish water-spaniel. No special rules of guidance can be laid down for shore-shooting; the districts are unhappily few and far between where even a moderate bag of edible wild-fowl can be made nowadays, and experience alone can give that knowledge of their habits which is essential to success. Wild stormy weather which drives the birds off the sea is best for shore-shooting.

Punt-gunning or wild-fowling afloat is a sport confined to an exceedingly small number of people, professional or amateur, and is as distinct from ordinary inland shooting as deer-stalking from pigeon-shooting. It may be briefly, described as the art of shooting wild-fowl on the sea, or in estuaries of rivers, from a flat-bottomed punt carrying a heavy, fixed gun, weighing anything from 70-170 lb, the muzzle of which rests in a revolving crutch in the bow of the boat, and firing a charge of 1-2 lb of shot. A punt may be either single- or double-handed, i.e. to contain one or two people, and it is perhaps unnecessary to add the fowl are shot sitting, or just as they rise from the water. It is a sport that contains a considerable element of danger, and requires great powers of endurance and a strong constitution no less than good nerves, and it has been rightly termed a science in itself, only to be learnt by a patient apprenticeship under an experienced teacher.

The art of shooting.

The art of shooting cannot be learnt theoretically, and can only be acquired by experience and practice. The beginner should, however, from the first seek to avoid an ugly or cramped style, which, once developed, is very difficult to get rid of, and should bear in mind that, in firing at a moving object, his purpose should be not to place his charge of shot where such object is at the moment he pulls the trigger, but where it will be by the time the shot reaches it; in other words the game should run or fly into the circle of pellets. Nor should he seek to effect this by dwelling on his game with his gun at his shoulder-a practice not only clumsy but exceedingly dangerous-but by firing at an imaginary point in front of it. Practice alone can teach the knack of doing this properly; to some men it seems a natural gift, while others do not acquire it in a life-time. A sound digestion is the surest aid to successful shooting, for unless the nervous system be in perfect tune, brain, eye and hand cannot act in that spontaneous sympathy necessary to quick and pretty marksmanship.

None the less a good deal depends on the gun, as well as the man who uses it, and in choosing a fowling-piece it will be found an advantage, no less than an ultimate economy, for the young shooter to place himself in the hands of a London gunmaker of repute, and pay a good price for a good article. A 12-bore is the generally accepted gauge for modern shot guns, and this should weigh from 6-6 lb. Of late years it is gradually becoming customary to reduce the length of the barrels from 30 to 28 in., a most decided improvement, as without diminishing the killing-power of the gun it improves its balance, and so lessens

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the probability of shooting under game, a very common fault among sportsmen. Excessive choking is to be deprecated; a pattern of 140 for the right and of 160 for the left barrel will be found amply sufficient, and a load of 40-42 grains of nitropowder with 1 or 1 oz. No. 5 unchilled shot will meet all ordinary requirements of the shooting field. A thoroughly good hammerless ejector gun can be obtained from a first-class London gunmaker for 35-45 guineas, and a pair for £75 to £100, but these prices are capable of considerable modification or the reverse. Single-trigger guns are the latest fashion, but no special advantage can be claimed for them.

The bibliography of shooting is very extensive, but the following works may be cited as standard ones on the subject: The "Badminton Library" Shooting-Hints to Young Shooters, by Sir Ralph series of publications; Payne-Gallwey: "The Fur and Feather The Gun and its Developments, by Greener; and for wild-fowling, Colonel Hawker's evergreen Instructions to Young Sportsmen, The Art of Wildfowling, by Abel Chapman: The Fowler in Ireland, by Sir Ralph Payne-Gallwey; and The Wildfowler, by Folkard.

Big Game.

The pursuit of large game, whether for food or sport, has ever exercised the greatest fascination for mankind, and with the rapid opening up of vast continents hitherto unexplored, and the introduction of breech-loading rifles, it has assumed an importance within the last few decades that bids fair to render it a thing of the past before the end of the current century. The present generation has seen the bison, which formerly roamed the American prairies in countless millions, wiped of the face of creation; the veldt of Southern Africa, which teemed in equal proportions with big game of every description, has become a pastoral country, where a few of the commoner varieties of antelope are suffered to exist under much the same conditions as the semi-wild deer of the Scottish Highlands; and even the jungles of Hindustan, save where jealously preserved by native potentates, show signs of exhaustion as regards the larger fauna. True, wherever the white man holds sway, the danger of extinction has been recognized; close-times have been instituted; reserves set apart wherein the animals may breed unmolested, and the number of each species that may be killed, restricted; but it is doubtful whether these laws, wholesome and well-intentioned as they are, can do more than retard the ultimate destruction of big game outside such reserves as the Yellowstone Park in North America, Within the pale of this no rifle is ever fired, and the game has prospered correspondingly, but once let a single head of it wander outside the restricted area, and its doom is sealed. Morcover, there are still vast tracts in Africa, and to a limited extent in other parts of the globe, where big game forms the staple meat supply of the aboriginal inhabitants, who, in addition, are no longer dependent on their primitive weapons of the chase, but are equipped with more or less efficient firearms. Great regions are however still to be found, of which sportsmen have as yet barely touched the fringe. The derse forests of Western Africa are practically unexplored, much less shot out, and Central and Eastern Asia, the Dutch East Indies, and Borneo and Sumatra, offer an almost virgin field for sport with big game. Save for the Barren Grounds of the Arctic regions and some parts of the extreme north-west-though Alaska now enjoys particularly stringent game laws-the North American continent is fast becoming denuded of big game; but in Europe, within a week's journey of London, the mountains of the Caucasus and the forests at their feet are only known to a handful of intrepid explorers. It will thus be seen that although good trophies, whether of hide or horn, are yearly becoming scarcer, fair sport is yet obtainable in those parts of the world where big game is indigenous, though the days are long past when a sportsman could shoot at his own discretion over the whole of Africa or North America, or when the globe-trotter visiting India could count on big game shooting as forming part of his programme.

Indeed, in view of the increased, and increasing, facilities for world travel, and the prevalent fashion for sport, it is probable that in course of time big game shooting will be universally

conducted on modern European lines; i.e. wild animals will be carefully preserved by the state and private owners, and where the latter do not care to exercise the sporting rights they will be let to the highest bidder, and big game shooting will, as with Scottish deer-stalking, become exclusively a pastime of the wealthy or luxurious classes. Already large tracts in the wilder parts of the Eastern States of America have been acquired by rich men, over which they jealously preserve the sporting; and with the opening up of railway communication in the south of Africa to the Zambezi, and in the north to Khartum, the dawn of another century may not improbably see shooting-boxes advertised "to let for the winter months," dotting the very countries where Oswell, or Baker, found a virgin field for their rifles within the last few decades. Distasteful as such a state of things may seem to the present generation of sportsmen, something more or less approaching it will inevitably come to pass; and where climatic conditions or inaccessibility forbid its adoption, big game will become extinct at the hands of native races or white "professional" hunters. Carpe diem must undoubtedly be the motto of the big game shooter of the present day, who requires genuine wild sport under the highest possible conditions. Even at present it is essential that he should obtain the fullest information as to the existing game laws in the part of the world in which he proposes to hunt, the whole of North America and practically three-fourths of Africa being governed by stringent regulations respecting the preservation of big game. Every state in the North American Union, and in some cases every county in a state, has its own close-times and game laws, and the same is true of Canada. Moreover, heavy fees for licences to kill big game are now exacted in all parts of the world where game laws exist. In the United States the cost of this varies very much, the present highest charge being $50 for a "nonresident" sportsman, while in addition in some states he is not permitted to hunt unless accompanied with a qualified guide. Full information on these points can be obtained gratis on application to the Board of Agriculture at Washington, where every assistance is given with the greatest courtesy, and which further issues admirably compiled pamphlets dealing with the whole question of game-preservation. Infringement of the United States Game Laws entails exceedingly heavy penalties, amounting in the most extreme case to two years' imprisonment plus a fine of $5000.

In Canada the highest charge is $100 in Manitoba, while in Africa it varies from £50 in the Sudan and British and German East Africa to £100 in Bechuanaland. Moreover, it must be borne in mind that these fees only permit the killing of a limited number of specified animals. Still, excellent as these laws undoubtedly are, their value must remain enormously discounted as long as the sale of game and skins by aboriginal or professional hunters is permitted; it is they, and not the heavily taxed foreign sportsman, who are responsible for the threatened extinction of big game.

So far as Asiatic sport is concerned, British India, save to those furnished with credentials to native potentates or high government officials, offers scant opportunity as regards big game to the itinerant sportsman, who must now wander farther afield into Central or North-Eastern Asia, Borneo, Java and the wilder parts of Assam or Burma; but the greater portion of the first-named locality is only open to persons duly authorized by the Russian government.

Although South America and Australia offer little attraction for sport with the rifle, big game of varying species is thus indigenous in every part of the world. It is obviously impossible within our limits to deal at any length with either its habits or the various methods of hunting it. Brief allusion will be made, however, to the chief varieties of it found in the various continents and the necessary equipment for their pursuit.

Europe contains big game in greater variety and quantity than is generally supposed. The last survivors of the aurochs or European bison still roam the forests of Lithuania and the Except in New Zealand, where red-deer have, however, been introduced and afford magnificent sport.

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Caucasus: elk are found in Scandinavia, Russia and Eastern Prussia, and red-deer are common to the whole of the continent. Of the more Alpine kinds of big game, reindeer exist Europe. in Norway; chamois in the mountainous districts of Central and Southern Europe; wild sheep in Corsica and Sardinia; while a few of the European ibex still linger in the royal preserves of the Italian Alps. A variety of ibex is fairly plentiful in Spain, and wild goats are found in South-Eastern Europe. Of the carnivora, bears, wolves and lynxes, though not often met with, still exist in fair numbers in most of the mountainous countries of Europe, though the first-named animal is practically the only one affording opportunity for sport with the rifle. Gluttons or wolverines are found in Scandinavia and Russia, and so-called wild-boar are plentiful in the carefully preserved forests of Central Europe. The reason for this continued supply of big game is that the whole of the European continent has been for centuries under private, communal or state preservation. The Caucasus, which though geographically in Europe, can hardly with fairness be held to be so as regards sport, further contain such purely Asiatic varieties of big game as tigers, leopards and tahr, and but for the savage character of the country and its inhabitants, and the obstacles thrown in the way of foreign travellers, would probably be far more visited by English sportsmen than is at present the case. In civilized Europe, Scandinavia, Spain and the Mediterranean islands probably offer the best field for the big game hunter of moderate means, though the last named localities still enjoy an unenviable reputation for brigandage.

Among useful works of reference dealing with big game shooting in Europe the following may be cited: Wild Spain, by Chapman, and Wild Norway by the same author; Flood, Fell and Forest, by Sir Henry Pottinger; Savage Svanetia and Sport in the Crimea and Caucasus, by Phillips Woolley; Tyrol and the Tyrolese, by BaillieGrohmann; the volumes of the "Badminton Library" dealing with the subject, and especially Short Stalks, by E. N. Buxton.

Asia.

The physical geography of so vast a continent as Asia, no less than its varying climatic conditions, naturally produce many different species of big game, ranging from the Alpine to the purely tropical. When it is remembered that the continent includes the frozen tundras of the Arctic Circle, the steaming plains of Hindustan, the treeless wastes of the Pamirs and the dense jungles of Burma, together with the highest mountains in the world, it will be readily seen how varied must be its fauna. Among the carnivora, the tiger and the leopard or panther are found practically throughout Asia, save in the extreme north and north-west; while lions, though exceedingly rare, still exist in Guzerat and parts of Persia and Mesopotamia. The usual methods of tiger-shooting in British Asia are, when the game has been located, either to drive it to the sportsmen by means of natives acting as beaters, or else to force it into the open with a long line of elephants, which also serve to carry the shooters; the choice of methods must, of course, depend on local 'conditions. The second practice is not a form of sport within the reach of men of moderate means, who, indeed, except as the guests of some native potentate, are not likely to have the opportunity of indulging in tiger-shooting at all. In localitics where neither of these methods is feasible, it is usual to tie up a live animal as a bait, and sit up over it during the night in a machan or platform lashed to the nearest tree; but this is usually an unsatisfactory and disappointing proceeding. In parts of Asia other than British possessions, tigers are found as far apart as the shores of the Caspian Sea and the island of Saghalien. Europeans recover with difficulty from the bite of a tiger, since blood-poisoning is the almost inevitable result owing to the septic condition of the animal's teeth and claws, and a supply of antiseptic lint and solution should always form part of the tiger-shooter's equipment. Panthers, though more plentiful than tigers, are less frequently bagged, as they are exceedingly difficult animals to beat out of covert; they are usually killed by sitting up over a bait, or by smoking them out of the caves they frequently make their homes. A wounded panther has the reputation of being a more dangerous animal than a tiger. Other varieties of the felines are the cheetah, the clouded panther,

the lynx, and most beautiful and rarest of all, the ounce or snow mountaineering qualities on the part of the stalker, but with lcopard only found above the snow line.

Of other Asiatic carnivora the bears are the most important from the sportsman's point of view. A great variety of them exists, ranging from the great Kamchatkan bear to the small blue bear of Thibet, but the methods of their pursuit call for no special mention.

The Indian elephant is rather smaller than the African variety, and has other well-marked differences, the chief as regards shooting being the fact that the cavity at the top of the trunk is not protected by the roots of the tusk as in the African elephant, thus enabling a frontal shot to reach the brain. This point, one at the side of the temple, and another at the back of the car, are most usually selected for their aim by Indian sportsmen, who do not favour the shoulder shot so commonly employed in Africa. A charging elephant can often be turned by a well-planted, though not necessarily fatal, bullet, but a really determined animal, especially a female with a calf, will not cease its attack until either it or the hunter be killed. Though elephants will usually fly from the report of a rifle, the sound of a human voice will often make them charge.

Four varieties of rhinoceros, of which two are one-horned, and two double-horned, are found in Asia, ranging eastwards from Assam through Burma and Siam as far as Sumatra. The rhinoceros is almost invariably found in heavy grass swamps, and can consequently only be hunted by means of elephants, It is usually beaten out by means of a long line, but is occasionally tracked to its lair on a single elephant. In common with many animals of the deer and antelope tribes, the rhinoceros always deposits its droppings in the same place, a peculiarity which enables native shikaris to locate it with tolerable ease. Although a rhinoceros, even when wounded, will rarely charge home, it has a peculiarly terrifying effect on tame elephants, and specially trustworthy ones are necessary for this sport. The Indian rhinoceros differs in many important details from the African variety.

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Of bovines, Asia produces the buffalo, three species of the gaur -miscalled the Indian bison--and the yak, the latter a rather uninteresting beast of the chase only found on the open ground of the Tibetan plateau. Very different is the pursuit of the gaur in the dense forests of India and Burma, where it is usually stalked on foot; and to track a wounded bull through thick jungle affords one of the most exciting experiences of big game shooting. Such an animal will almost invariably turn at right angles to its trail, and watch for its pursuer, whom it will charge from a distance of perhaps a few yards, even feet. The wild buffalo, too, is an exceedingly plucky animal, and will on occasion even attack a European-whose smell appears distasteful to it— unmolested, a peculiarity it shares with the tame variety.

The numerous species of deer and antelope scattered over the continent of Asia are usually obtained by stalking, but the former being essentially forest-haunting animals, while the latter are usually found on open ground, the methods of approaching them naturally vary with local conditions. Of deer the best known are the sambar, the chital and the swamp deer, but the Hangul or Cashmere stag, the Altai wapiti and the Maral or Asiatic red-deer afford the finest trophies. Of Asiatic antelope the handsomest and commonest variety is probably the blackbuck, found practically all over India as far cast as Assam.

To many sportsmen the most fascinating form of Asiatic big game shooting is the pursuit of the many varieties of wild goats and sheep, common to the various mountain ranges and highlying plateaus of the continent. While such sport lacks the risk of attack from the animal hunted, it exacts remarkable powers of endurance and perseverance on the part of the hunter, coupled in most cases with the dangers inseparable from Alpine climbing. There is scarcely a mountainous or elevated part of Asia which does not contain some variety of wild goat or sheep, of which the best known are the ibex and markhor of the Himalayas and Hindu Kush among the former, and the Ovis Poli and O. Ammon of Tibet among the latter. As a general rule all wild goats can only be obtained under conditions which exact the highest

regard to the sheep of the vast tablelands of High Asia-" the roof of the world "-a good deal of work has to be done on pony back, as the rarefied atmosphere of these great altitudes precludes much physical exertion. Exception, however, in this respect must be made of the burhel-Oris Nahura-which haunts the same inaccessible crags as the ibex or markhor. The sportsman who essays to bag an Ovis Poli, or O. Ammon, will probably have had ample opportunity of testing his climbing powers on the march from India to his shooting-ground.

Ibex-shooting begins with the melting of the snows on the lower slopes, and ends in June, when the flies and the flocks of native herdsmen, driven to the Alpine pastures, force the wild animals to seek ground absolutely inaccessible to man. "First come first served" is a recognized rule in Himalayan shooting, and once a sportsman has claimed a nullah, or mountain valley, by priority of possession, it is his alone as long as he chooses to retain it; consequently the "race for the nullahs" in early spring is not the least exciting part of Himalayan big game shooting. In addition to ibex, markhor and such animals, the season's bag should also include two varieties of bear, and, with extreme good fortune, an ounce or snow leopard.

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Like the fox in Great Britain, the wild boar is never shot in any part of British Asia where it can be hunted on horseback. Thanks to the improvements in modern firearms, and particularly to the adaptation of cordite ammunition to sporting rifles, the battery necessary for Asiatic big game shooting has been considerably reduced, both in weight and number of weapons required. It is not long since 8-, or even 4-bore rifles, weighing respectively 18 and 24 lb, or at least a 577 Express, were considered indispensable for the pursuit of the pachyderms and larger bovines, yet nowadays a 450 rifle of 11 lb weight, in conjunction with cordite powder, is held amply sufficient for the heaviest or most dangerous game, the penetration or expansion of the bullet being regulated by the extent of its covering of cupro-nickel or steel. For soft-skinned animals, deer and mountain game, a ·256 or 303 magazine rife is the most useful weapon, and it may be confidently said that the introduction of these and similar small-bore rifles has extended the killing zone in stalking by at least 100 yds. For forest or jungle shooting a 10- or 12-bore Paradox gun is an admirable weapon, capable of use as a rifle against large and dangerous animals, or as an ordinary shot gun for small game. A doublebarrelled rifle is essential for dangerous game, the saving of time, short as it is, in merely shifting the finger from one trigger to another, being an enormous advantage as compared with the action of ejecting and re-loading from a magazine. Finally it may be said that a sportsman would be completely equipped for big game shooting in Asia, or indeed any part of the world, with a battery consisting of a 450 cordite rifle, a 10- or 12-bore Paradox gun and a 256 or 303 magazine rifle.

As regards the rest of his outfit, if he propose to shoot in any part of British Asia, he can procure this on the spot, as well, and far cheaper, than in England.

Useful works dealing with big game shooting in Asia are: Baldwin, Large and Small Game of Bengal; Forsyth, Highlands of of India: Kinloch, Large Game Shooting in Thibet, &c.; Maclature, Central India; Sanderson, Thirteen Years among the Wild Beats Hindu Koh; Steindale, Natural History; Demidoff, Sport in Centra Asia; Ronaldshay, Sport and Travel 'neath an Eastern Sky; A Shooting Trip to Kamchatka; and Fife-Cookson, Tiger-Shooting is

the Doon and Ulwar.

Africa

The main feature of African big game is the antelopes, which exist in great variety; such widely different animals as the noble sable antelope and the tiny dik-dik being classed among them. African gazelles and antelopes may be roughly divided into two classes, those found on plains or open ground, and those frequenting forest or bush, and the methods of hunting them naturally vary with the locality. Still, as a general rule the antelopes of the plains are not only the finer animals, but afford more enjoyable sport in the stalk, combined with the advantage of a climate free from malaria. There is practically no part of Africa where antelopes do not exist in one variety of

another, but probably British East Africa or Somaliland offer the best field for sportsmen. On open ground a good deal of hunting can be done on horseback-except in those districts where the tsetse fly exists-and antelopes are occasionally ridden down, but a very stout-hearted horse is required to overtake such animals as sable antelopes, eland or gemsbok. Caution should always be exercised in approaching the larger varieties of antelope when at bay, whether wounded or not, as some of them, notably the roan and sable, and the oryx, are inclined to be very savage, and will charge desperately home. It is said that even a lion is chary of attacking the oryx, owing to its long rapier-like horns. The African carnivora include the lion, leopard, cheetah, hyena and other smaller varieties, but it is only necessary to deal with the first named, which, where not exterminated or driven away by civilization, may be said to be common to the whole continent. As with all game, big or small, the conditions of lion-shooting vary with the locality; thus, on the open plains of Somaliland, lions can be spied from a distance and stalked on foot, or even ridden to bay on horseback, while in densely bushed districts, unless chanced on in open ground, the most usual method is to sit up at night over a bait or kill, inside a zareba of thorn bushes. This method, however, makes aiming with any degree of accuracy a matter of difficulty, but a German, Herr Schillings, has demonstrated the use of a flashlight in such circumstances. Lions frequently lie up or shelter in detached patches of scrub, whence they may be driven by a "bobbery " pack of dogs, or as a last resource the bush may be set on fire, the sportsman having previously concealed himself down wind. Lions when emboldened by hunger will fearlessly attack human beings, especially at night, and, like tigers that have once developed a taste for human flesh, become positive scourges of their neighbourhood. Mr F. C. Selous, than whom there are few better authorities, considers the lion the most dangerous of all African big game, a distinction that other writers award to the buffalo.

Of the pachyderms the commonest is the rhinoceros (R.bicornis), usually termed the black rhinoceros to distinguish it from the so-called "white" variety now almost extinct. Though the first-named is by no means so widely distributed as formerly, it is still plentiful in Equatorial Africa, and to a lesser extent in Somaliland. It bears rather a mixed character for ferocity, but most hunters agree that while it will charge with little or no provocation, it does so blindly, and rarely turns to renew the attack. This is probably due to its exceedingly poor sense of sight, but its sense of smell is correspondingly extraordinarily acute, while an additional cause that renders it a difficult beast to stalk is the presence of the "rhinoceros birds" which are its almost invariable companions, and which warn it of danger. Though so huge an animal, the rhinoceros is easily killed by a bullet in front of the base of the ear, or midway along the neck; the shoulder shot is only employed when the hunter has stepped aside to avoid a charge. The hippopotamus is still plentiful throughout most parts of uncivilized Africa. In narrow rivers where they can be shot from the bank, they are easily killed by a brain-shot, the best spot to aim at being the base of the ear. If the bullet be properly placed the animal will sink to the bottom of the stream and rise to the surface within a few hours. Hippopotami are nocturnal feeders, and can be occasionally shot at night when at a considerable distance from water; but owing to the difficulty of placing the bullet accurately, they are apt to escape wounded. Hippopotamus shooting does not rank high as a sport, but the meat, when young, is excellent, and the huge size of the animal enables a hunter to provide a large number of followers with food; this can be the only excuse for killing these comparatively harmless animals in any number.

Elephants still exist in considerable numbers in parts of Africa, but, unless more stringent methods of protection are afforded, their ultimate extermination at the hands of professional ivoryhunters, white or coloured, is inevitable. What can be done in the direction of preservation is shown in Cape Colony, where elephants, which have been rigidly protected for many years, now exist in considerable, and increasing, quantity. Elephants

have an extraordinarily keen sense of smell, which, coupled with their habit of roaming over vast expanses of country, forms their chief safeguard against the relentless persecution to which they are subject. They may be hunted either on foot or horseback; where feasible, the latter is the preferable method, as it not only enables the hunter to follow up his quarry with greater ease and when startled, or wounded, elephants will travel enormous distances-but in open country gives him a better chance of escape from a charge. The heart, or broadside, shot is usually employed. Incredible as it may seem, these enormous creatures can be killed by a single pellet of hardened nickel, discharged from a 303 rifle. A weapon of heavier calibre is, however, to be recommended, and a 450 rifle, or 10 or 8 bore Paradox gun, are most suitable; the closer the hunter can safely get to the animal the better. A charging elephant can usually, but not invariably, be turned by a shot in the chest; to fire at the head is useless.

The buffalo (Bos caffer), formerly one of the commonest of African wild animals, has been practically exterminated in many parts by the plague of rinderpest, but is still plentiful in the malarious swamps between the mouths of the Limpopo and the Zambezi, and even more so in the Beira district of Portuguese East Africa. Like most wild animals, the buffalo is naturally disinclined to take the offensive, but when roused to action, it will pursue a hunter with relentless ferocity, and is held by many authorities to be the most dangerous of African big game. The greatest care should therefore be exercised in following up a wounded animal, or in approaching one that is apparently dead, for as long as a spark of life lingers in it, it will endeavour to destroy its destroyer. A wounded buffalo will nearly always make for the nearest thicket, where it will await its pursuer, and in such circumstances, it should be left alone for an hour or two, when it will probably lie down, and be less active in attack owing to its wound having stiffened. A charging buffalo always carries its head at such an angle that a frontal shot is useless, unless the bullet penetrates through the nose into the throat or chest. A 500 or 450 rifle with a solid bullet, or an 8-bore Paradox gun is the best weapon for buffalo-shooting. Other varieties of the African bovines are the smaller, Abyssinian, the Senegalian, and the dwarf, or Congo buffaloes.

The only other species of African big game calling for special mention is the giraffe, which is usually ridden down and killed by a raking shot at the root of the tail; but except when required for food or specimens, the destruction of this inoffensive animal, which offers no trophy of the chase, is to be deprecated. Great numbers are annually destroyed by professional skin hunters, and their carcases left to rot. Bears, though little known, exist in North-West Africa, and the ubiquitous wild goat, or ibex, is also found in the north of the continent. A 450 cordite rifle, a 303 small bore, and a 10 or 8 bore Paradox gun, is an ample battery for African big game shooting.

Useful books of reference for African shooting are: Selous, A Hunter's Wanderings in Africa; Travel and Adventure in S.E. Africa, by the same author; Baker, Wild Beasts and their Ways Swayne, Seventeen Trips through Somaliland; Powell Cotton, Abyssinia; Melliss, Lion Hunting in Somaliland; Willoughby, Travel and Adventure in the Congo Free State, A Sporting Trip to East Africa and its Big Game; Neumann, Elephant Hunting in East Equatorial Africa: Hay, Western Barbary; Bryden, Kloof and Karroo; Millais, A Breath from the Veldt: Thomson, Through MasaiLand, and Theodore Roosevelt, African Game Trails (N.Y. 1910).

Big game in North America has been rapidly disappearing for several decades before the advance of civilization armed with breech-loading rifles. Among the carnivora, bears and pumas are the only species that need be taken into North

America.

account as far as shooting is concerned. Of the former three1 varieties exist, the grizzly, rarely found east of the Rocky Mountains, the brown bear, and the black bear, common to practi

1 The Polar bear may be claimed as a fourth species, as it is found on the mainland of the ice-bound north, but it can hardly be included as far as big game shooting is concerned. American naturalists recognize many sub-varieties of both the grizzly and brown bear.

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