MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 137 



had cotne absolutely noiselessly, and lie gradually got nearer and nearer and 

 looked whiter and larger and more like a ghost than anything. When he got 

 up to the body he half turned his side although still looking straight towards 

 me, so I settled to shoot. I had purposely put an expanding bullet in the left 

 barrel of my "450 express and a solid one in the right and meant to shoot both 

 barrels at once (a finger on each trigger) as the lamp invariably goes out with 

 the concussion of the air so tbat one cannot get in a second shot. I aimed 

 at his body behind the shoulder as far as I could and pulled both triggers ; a 

 flash, a loud report and total darkness, and then I listened and heard the 

 panther crashing down the hill for about 5 seconds, then quiet, and then a 

 groaning growl ; so I knew he was hard hit. Nothing more could be done 

 till morning so I went back to the village, and after a fine drink of milk tried 

 to sleep on a bed of chaff thrown down on the ground under the eaves of a 

 hut, but a rat which would try to walk over my face, numerous insects and 

 cattle and goats a few feet away in the hut hardly allowed me a wink the 

 whole night. At sunrise we started off to the kill : we found blood very soon 

 and tracked very cautiously : the tracking was easy, as there was a lot of 

 blood but there was plenty of cover so one had to be careful. The panther 

 had gone down to the stream bed and after about 15 minutes we saw the 

 body stretched out on some rocks ahead with back towards us. I threw a 

 small stone towards it but there was no movement so I went up to within 

 10 yards' distance. I then was pretty sure he was dead, but threw a rock at 

 him to make sure, when to my surprise he lifted his head to look at me . I 

 fired two solid bullets into his head and all was over. He was a splendid 

 male 7''3i'' long and the length of the middle toes in his fore feet showed 

 he was the man-eater of last hot weather. One of the bullets of the night 

 before had struck him in the stomach and the second (the solid one) had 

 broken one of his hind legs. 



When first he took to man-eating he would never touch any one unless ho 

 (or she) was lying down and unless it was quite dark with no moon or fire 

 or light burning ; under these circumstances if no ODe were sleeping outside 

 he would go right into a Imt if the door were open and lay hold of one of 

 those asleep : if he happened to grip by the arm or leg and the victim yelled 

 out then probably the panther would let go and try his lack elsewhere, but if 

 he laid hold at once by the throat so that there could be no cry, then the 

 man, woman or child would probably be carried out of the hut before the 

 others sleeping near knew anything at all. 



He had got bolder however lately and the kill before the last was in 

 broad-day-light and I went and saw the place (in Gad forest on the Dangs 

 boundary). Villagers had been cutting rosha grass and were taking their 

 head-loads to the still, the last couple being a woman and her boy (or girl), 

 who it seems were some way behind the others ; the panther had crouched 

 in high grass within 5 feet of a forest foot-path ; I saw the patch of blood 

 close to the path and some 10 feet from the grass where the panther mu^t 

 18 



