Sport and Work on the Nepaul Frontier - Twelve Years Sporting Reminiscences of an Indigo Planter by James Inglis
page 114 of 347 (32%)
page 114 of 347 (32%)
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good for a couple of brace of snipe.
Sometimes on a withered branch overhanging the stream, you can see perched the _ahur_, or great black fish-hawk. It has a grating, discordant cry, which it utters at intervals as it sits pluming its black feathers above the pool. The dark ibis and the ubiquitous paddy-bird are of course also found here; and where the land is low and marshy, and the stream crawls along through several channels, you are sure to come across a couple of red-headed _sarus_, serpent birds, a crane, and a solitary heron. The _moosahernee_ is a black and white bird, I fancy a sort of ibis, and is good eating. The _dokahur_ is another fine big bird, black body and white wings, and as its name (derived from _dokha_, a shell) implies, it is the shell-gatherer, or snail-eater, and gives good shooting. When you have determined to beat the forest, you first get your coolies and villagers assembled, and send them some mile or two miles ahead, under charge of some of the head men, to beat the jungle towards you, while you look out for a likely spot, shady, concealed, and cool, where you wait with your guns till the game is driven up to you. The whole arrangements are generally made, of course under your own supervision, by your _Shekarry_, or gamekeeper, as I suppose you might call him. He is generally a thin, wiry, silent man, well versed in all the lore of the woods, acquainted with the name, appearance, and habits of every bird and beast in the forest. He knows their haunts and when they are to be found at home. He will track a wounded deer like a bloodhound, and can tell the signs and almost impalpable evidences of an animal's whereabouts, the knowledge of which goes to make up the genuine hunter. When all is still around, and only the distant shouts of the beaters |
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