Trapping Wild Animals in Malay JunglesDuffield, 1921 - 207 pages |
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agent Ali's animal house arms arrived asked bamboo bars beast black leopard boar boat breaking bull bullet cage called captain capture catch caught charge Chinese circus crate crew dangerous elephants excitement express rifle feet fever fight fire gathered gave Gaylord ground hadji head headman herd hunt hunter jumped jungle kampong Kelantan river killed knew later legs leopard looked Mahommed Ariff Malay Malay language Malay Peninsula merry-go-round morning natives nets never night Omar and Munshee Orang Ulu orang-outangs orangs Palembang parangs phant platform poles Pontianak pulled python rattan Rawang ready rhinoceros river ropes running screamed seen seladang ship shoot Siam side Singapore snake Souef started steamer stood Sultan Sultan of Johore talk tiger told took trap tree Trengganu trip trunk Tûan Tungku village waiting wanted watching weeks wild yelled Zoological
Popular passages
Page 159 - Clutching the bullock's fore-quarters with his paws, one being generally over the shoulder, he seizes the throat in his jaws from underneath, and turns it upwards and over, sometimes springing to the far side in doing so, to throw the bullock over, and give the wrench which dislocates its neck. This is frequently done so quickly that the tiger, if timid, is in retreat again almost before the herdsman can turn round.
Page 80 - ... which he is commonly credited. I do not think I traduce the elephant when I say it is, in many things, a stupid animal ; and I can assert with confidence that all the stories I have heard of it, except those relating to feats of strength or docility performed under its keeper's direction, are beyond its intellectual power, and are mere pleasant fictions.
Page 159 - The general method is for the tiger to slink up under cover of bushes or long grass, ahead of the cattle in the direction they are feeding, and to make a rush at the first cow or bullock that comes within five or six yards. The tiger does not spring upon his prey in the manner usually represented.
Page 72 - Twan, I have eaten and I have had plenty,' he responded. ‘You may take my boat and row yourself across the river. Tomorrow, if Allah grants me life, and if I need the boat, I will swim over for it.
Page 79 - ... features in the domesticated elephant's character is its obedience. It may also be readily taught, as it has a large share of the ordinary cultivable intelligence common in a greater or less degree to all animals. But its reasoning faculties are undoubtedly far below those of the dog, and possibly of other animals; and in matters beyond the range of its daily experience it evinces no special discernment. Whilst quick at comprehending anything sought to be taught to it, the elephant is decidedly...
Page 80 - ... only covered with a few sticks and leaves. Its fellows make no effort to assist the fallen one, as they might easily do by kicking in the earth around the pit, but flee in terror.
Page 80 - ... flee in terror. It commonly happens that a young elephant falls into a pit, near which the mother will remain until the hunters come, without doing anything to assist it, not even feeding it by throwing in a few branches.
Page 92 - When the whistle blows, the elephants know that 91 it is time to stop work and eat. It makes no difference if they have a log within a fraction of an inch of the platform; the boss drops his anchor chain and gets out of the way, and the pushers step to one side, letting the log crash down again. Then, without the least expression of interest, they turn for the stalls. Because they obey signals so mechanically, the engineer steps out, when feeding-time comes, and looks up and down the runway to see...
Page 62 - ... the stockade. The work of making the trap was prodigious. Trees, twenty to twenty-five feet in length and a foot and a half in diameter, were cut down and dragged through the jungle for half a mile or more to the spot I had selected. These were planted five feet in the ground and braced by three smaller trees, so that they could stand the enormous pressure of elephants trying to lunge through them. The trap was round — about seventy-five feet in diameter — with two wings, each one hundred...
Page 80 - ... is more difficult of belief to most people than if they were told that the mother supplied it with grass, brought water in her trunk, or filled up the pit with fagots, and effected her young one's release. Whole herds of elephants are driven into ill-concealed enclosures which no other wild animals could be got to enter, and single ones are caught by their legs being tied together by men under cover of a couple of tame elephants. Elephants which happen to effect their escape are caught again...