MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 345 



from the kill. The platform was made of a native cot : a wooden frame-work 

 with string netting to lie on ; leaf screens were built up from the sides of this to 

 a height of a couple of feet, with a square window towards the kill. The goat 

 had been dragged some seven or eight hundred yards and placed on the side 

 of a small nala in high grass — a nala which had, in this place, just freed itselt 

 from the forest-covered hills and got into level country : old cultivation without 

 any sign of trees or bushes : only some grass along the nala in a band of about 

 twenty yards wide, and a few green bushes and a little elephant grass in the 

 nala bed. The forest ended where the kill was in a point formed by two great 

 spreading, fairly leafy mowra trees, in the outer one of which was my platform. 

 The other large mowra tree was to my right as I faced the carcase, and had a 

 thick branch, growing from the opposite side of the trunk to me from some 

 twenty feet up, which nearly touched the ground with its end twigs. I could 

 not see this branch from where I was sitting. Shortly after I had arrived in my 

 platform, about five o'clock in the afternoon, I saw the panther come down the 

 nala and jump up on to the side in the high grass some twenty yards above the 

 kill ; there it stood for some time. When it first appeared I got my rifle on to the 

 goat through the window, and was afraid to move while the beast remained 

 standing ; but, at last, the position became so irksome that I was forced 

 to alter it, which I did with great caution, taking my eyes off the 

 panther for a moment. When I looked again there was no panther to be 

 seen but, after some intent looking at the place where it had been, I thought 

 I could discern spots low down in the grass and presumed the animal was 

 lying down in the same spot — a presumption strengthened by the fact that 

 several small warblers were swearing just in that place. Thinking that the 

 panther might be looking at the platform, I remained motionless as long as 

 was possible — the cot made a very uncomfortable and confined seat, leaving no 

 room for one's legs — but again was forced to move. In so doing I happened 

 to look at the base of the next tree — the other mowra tree, just ten yards off, 

 and found myself staring into a pair of green eyes ; there was the beast, its 

 head and shoulders just free of the tree-trunk, gazing intently up at the plat- 

 form ! 1 stopped all motion abruptly. The panther must have kept its eyes 

 fixed, without movement of any sort, for at least five minutes after I saw 

 it ; how long it had been looking before that it is impossible to say. Suddenly it 

 ducked its head as if trying to look through the bottom of the platform and 

 assuming a crouching attitude commenced to move forward exactly as if stalk- 

 ing something. With the belly nearly touching the ground, tail just kept clear 

 of the surface, with the tip a little curled up, head stretched out, ears laid 

 slightly back, it glided along, the front leg stretched out to its full length at each 

 step, the foot brought down gently but firmly, moved to this side or that to 

 avoid noise as occasion required, its movements quite inaudible. It went for- 

 ward and away from me, round in a curve, keeping a watch on the platform 

 over its shoulder most of the time ; occasionally stopping to take a longer lcok, 

 but never altering the crouching attitude. Whenever I got a chance — that is 

 when the panther took its eyes off the platform — I moved the rifle round a bit 



