SHOOTING TRIPS IN CENTRAL PROVINCES 85 



bird ever is, it flew in, to have a look round I suppose, got 

 close to the dead leopard before it saw it, gave a startled 

 squawk and flew up in great agitation over the battlement 

 and was gone. I wondered whether the evil spirit of the 

 place, set free from the leopard, according to the shikari, 

 would have to sink so low as to occupy the body of a 

 mainah. The shikari vouchsafed no reply when I put this 

 question to him subsequently. 



The leopard was quite dead and a fine big beast. On 

 examination I found that my first shot had struck the 

 animal in one of the hind feet, and this must have been the 

 reason for her somewhat slow progression up the stairway, 

 a most fortunate shot for us. For a close acquaintance 

 with a wounded leopard when one is sitting on a bit of 

 battlemented ruin, practically unable to move, would have 

 been far from humorous. We had come out of it well, 

 however, all but the shikari, and I considered myself richly 

 rewarded for the archaeological inquisitiveness which had 

 led me to make the expedition. 



That day was a red-letter one in its way, for in the after- 

 noon we had rather a ludicrous tiger episode, but that is 

 another story. 



