RANDOM NOTES ON NATURAL HISTORY. 



27 



eye ! When he came around and presented 

 his neck fairl}-, I fired again, aiming to hit 

 his neck bone. At that sliot he instantly 

 dropped upon the sand. I quickly shoved 

 in a fresh cartridge, and with ritle at full cock 

 and the tiger carefully covered wc went 

 toward him slowly and respectfully. We 

 were not sure but that he would even then 

 get up and come at us. But lie was done 

 for, and lay there gasping, kicking, and 

 foaming at the mouth, and in three minutes 

 more my first tiger lay dead at our feet. He 

 died without making a sound. 



"To a hunter the moment of triumph is 

 when he first lays his hand upon his game. 

 What exquisite and indescribable pleasure 

 it is to handle the cruel teeth and knife-like 

 claws which were so dangerous but one 

 brief moment before ; to pull open the heavy 

 eyelid ; to examine the glazing eye which so 

 lately glared fiercely and fearlessly upon 

 ever}' foe ; to stroke the powerful limbs and 

 gloss}' sides while they are still warm, and 

 to handle the feet which made the huge 

 tracks that vou have been following in doubt 

 and danger. 



" How shall I express the pride I felt at 

 that moment ! Such a feeling can come 

 but once in a hunter's life, and when it does 

 come it makes up for oceans of ill luck. The 

 conditions were all exactly right. I was 

 almost alone and entirely unsupported, and 

 had not even one ' proper' weapon for tiger 

 hunting. We met the tiger fairly on foot, 

 and in four minutes from the time we first 

 saw him, he was ours. Furthermore, he 

 was the first tiger I ever saw loose in the 

 jungle, and we had outw^itted him. I ad- 

 mired my men quite as much as I did 

 myself. The}* were totally- unarmed, and 

 the}' had seen me miss spotted deer at sixty 

 3'ards ; but instead of bolting as I should 

 have done had I been in their place, they 

 stood right at my elbow like plucky men as 

 they were. What if they had been of the 

 timid sort? The}' would never have con- 

 sented to follow the trail of that dangerous 

 beast. 



" I paced the distance from where we 

 stood to the dead tiger, and found it to be 

 just thirty yards. My first was a dead 

 centre shot, striking him exactly in the left 

 eye, scarcely nicking the edge of the lid. I 

 had intended that that bullet should enter 

 his brain, but owing to the narrowness of 



the brain cavity it only fractured the left 

 side of the cranium. However, it rendered 

 him quite powerless either to fight or run 

 away, and he would have died very soon 

 from such a terrible wound. In fact, I now 

 think my second shot was really unneces- 

 sary. Owing to the position of his head I 

 could not possibly have placed a bullet in 

 his forehead so that it would have reached 

 the brain, but had I been using a regulation 

 'No. 8 bore rifle ' throwing a two ounce 

 ball, I could have blown the whole top of 

 his head off very neatly (!) and utterly ruined 

 him as a specimen. My second shot struck 

 one of his neck vertebrae and cut his spinal 

 cord, killing him instantly, a favorite shot 

 with me when I can catch an animal at rest. 

 " He was a splendid specimen every way, 

 just in the prime of tigerhood, fat, sleek, 

 and glossy. Up to that time, I could not 

 make myself believe that a tiger can pick up 

 a man in his mouth and run away with him 

 as easily as a terrier does with a rat. But 

 when I measured that great brute I saw and 

 realized just how it was done. Before 

 touching him with a knife we measured him 

 carefully twice, and recorded the figures in 

 my note book. 



Felis Tigris. 

 Animallal Hills, Sept. 27, 1877. 



Length from tip of nose to end of 



tail vertebrae 9 ft. 8^ in. 



Length of tail alone 3 " 6 " 



Vertical height at shoulders 8 " 7 " 



Girth 4 " 2 " 



Circumference of neck 2 " 8 " 



Circumference of head around the 



jaws S " •' 



Circumference of forearm 1 " 8 •' 



Width of fore paw 6^ " 



Weight (by standard American 



scales) 495 lbs. 



Mr. Thomas Morgan, of Somerville, N. 

 J., reports Bluebirds singing in his garden, 

 Feb. 8th and 10th, 188G. 



In the vicinity of Providence, February 

 10th and 13th, Bluebirds, Robins, and 

 Chickadees. March 11th, Song Sparrows. 

 March 13th, red and buff shouldered Black- 

 birds, white-bellied Nuthatch, Downy 

 Woodpeckers, with Bluebirds and Shore 

 Larks abundant. 



