A CHARGING FEMALE. 197 



rifle pistol-fashion in her face, as she came on the off-side and I was astride 

 on the pad and could not turn. This shot sent her off, but on further press- 

 ing she again came on, this time from the front, when I rolled her over with 

 the No. 8 and 12 drams in the forehead. This shot was too high, however, 

 and she got up and made off, and eventually made good her escape. 



In my early days at elephants I was once following four in the Kaken- 

 kote jungles through a swamp of grass twelve feet high ; I thought one was 

 a tusker I was in search of. I kept within twenty yards of their tails in 

 the lane they made, till at last, seeing they were all females, I thought to 

 have some fun with them, as I had always seen elephants run away on the 

 few occasions I had disturbed them, and I rashly gave a loud shout. They 

 turned and curled their trunks up, but did not retreat. I saw I had caught 

 a Tartar ; however, I gave another shout, throwing my sun-hat towards them 

 at the same time. At this moment one hidden in the grass to my left 

 front uttered a piercing scream, and rushed down upon myself and gun- 

 bearers. She could not see us, nor we her, till she burst out ten feet in 

 front of me into the path. I had just time to give her my Lang 4-bore and 

 1 drams in her face, without any particular aim. This fortunately dropped 

 her ; but she got up as quickly as she went down, and, to my relief, turned 

 and made off with the others. This elephant charged solely on the provoca- 

 tion of a shout. 



The most interesting branch of elephant - shooting is the pursuit of 

 single male elephants — either those which are quite solitary, or herd-tuskers 

 when wandering apart from their companions. The latter usually join their 

 herds by eight or nine o'clock in the morning, and great expedition must be 

 used to overtake them before that time, as the noise they make whilst feed- 

 ing guards the sportsman against stumbling on them unawares, and a close 

 and favourable shot can usually be obtained. Purely solitary elephants 

 cease feeding by ten o'clock ; they then generally stand listlessly in some 

 thick cover, usually bamboo, or under a tree in high grass ; or they lie down 

 in such places and rest. When lying down they snore, but not loudly; the 

 sound coming through the long trunk has a metallic sound. They occa- 

 sionally raise the ear that is uppermost and let it fall with a loud slap on 

 the neck ; this sound is quite distinct from the flapping of the ears when 

 the beast is standing up, and is well known to elephant-trackers. 



The habit of lying down to rest is much more common amongst ele- 

 phants, wild and tame, than I have found people even with some acquaint- 

 ance with them suppose. All wild beasts lie down during the day, and not 

 unfrequently at night, and it is not easy to guess how the notion arose that 

 elephants do so less than others. All tame elephants, except a few timid 



