But in "wild sports" the animals are for the most part large, dangerous and mischievous, and they are pursued and killed in the most speedy, and therefore in the most merciful, manner.
The government reward for the destruction of elephants in Ceylon was formerly ten shillings per tail; it is now reduced to seven shillings in some districts, and is altogether abolished in others, as the number killed was so great that the government imagined they could not afford the annual outlay.
Although the number of these animals is still so immense in Ceylon, they must nevertheless have been much reduced within the last twenty years.

In those days the country was overrun with them, and some idea of their numbers may be gathered from the fact that three first-rate shots in three days bagged one hundred and four elephants.

This was told to me by one of the parties concerned, and it throws our modern shooting into the shade.

In those days, however, the elephants were comparatively undisturbed, and they were accordingly more easy to approach.

One of the oldest native hunters has assured me that he has seen the elephants, when attacked, recklessly expose themselves to the shots and endeavour to raise their dead comrades.