PANTHERS. 'IT! 



Why do animals take to man-eating P The mangy tiger theory refers to 

 old and decrepit animals, or those which have been wounded, and find man 

 an easy prey. This would no doubt account for some cases. Or a herdsman 

 may be killed by accident or in his endeavovir to drive a beast of prey from 

 his charge, and a taste for blood so acquired. I recollect a Brinjara being 

 so killed by a tiger which I afterwards shot, but the beast did not become a 

 man-eater, and did not eat any portion of his victim. A commoner theory 

 is perhaps that of the tigress finding man an easy prey for feeding her 

 young and so perhaps bringing up a race of man-eaters. This is plausible 

 and appears to account for some instances, and for the generally-accepted 

 idea that man-eaters are more commonly females ; but this idea, judging 

 from the instances recorded, appears to be unfounded. It has been stated 

 that man-eaters are more numerous during or after famines, when they 

 might acquire the taste through scarcity of normal prey, or from feeding 

 on the corpses of people who have perished of want. 



11. Methods of Hunting. 



Now as regards the method of hunting panthers. In many parts of the 

 country, the only way of bringing these animals to bag is to sit up over a 

 bait such as a live goat or a kill, or over a pool of water frequented by 

 them. There is not much sport in this, but it has to be adopted in default. 

 It certainly has the advantage of giving the keeper of the vigil excellent 

 opportunities of observing the habits of the beast, which, in fact, so far as 

 the approach to and the seizing of the prey are concerned cannot be so 

 well observed in any other way. I have myself little experience of this 

 method. You may sit either in a tree or in a kind of zariba, or in a hole 

 in the ground, covered by a charpoy concealed suitably to the surroundings. 

 On a dark night the latter is the best plan, so that the animal can be 

 seen against the sky-line. I have seldom tried this "sittnig-up," and only 

 twice with success. In some districts on dark nights also a lantern may 

 be placed so as to throw a light on the bait. This would be sufficient in all 

 probability to scare a tiger, but a panther is used to wandering about in 

 the vicinity of village lights. When nobler game is to be had one does 

 not trouble about panthers, but they afford very good sport at times, and 

 there is quite suflicient danger in hunting them to class tliem as very 

 dangerous game. 



In many places they may be driven out with a line of beaters, and it is 

 not necessary, as it usually is in the case of tigers, to tie up bait and obtain 

 a kill before finding the game. In country where these animals are fairly 

 numerous and were the terrain is suitable, one can generally decide where 

 they are likely to be found, and carefully arranged beats through likely 

 covers will be successful. It is, however, curious how reluctant the natives 

 sometimes are to give any information. I met a man one morning carrying 

 a dead goat which, he said when questioned, had died, in the night, and had 

 not been killed by atiy animal. The tell-tale fang-holes in the throat told 

 a different story. The man was vvith some difficulty induced to show the 

 place where he had found the goat, and it then transpired that he had seen 

 a panther at the kill. Within an hour I had beaten out and shot the animal. 

 In the same district I heard of a panther having killed a pony in a village, 

 but the villagers would only say that the pony had died, and evidently had 

 a superstitious dread of even mentioning the name of panther. I observed 

 that there were no dogs in or about the village, an unusual circumstance. 

 A search in the vicinity revealed the lair of the panther close to the village, 

 but tracks showed that the beast had made off across country on my ap- 

 proach. I followed in the direction indicated by the tracks, and shot the 

 panther on the hillside about two miles off. Not far from the same place 

 a few days later I asked a ploughman at work in a field whether he knew 



