192 CARNIVORA. 



for a considerable distance ; the beaters then drive the game into the 

 circle toward a platform where the shooters are statioried. All means 

 imaginable are employed to drive the animals in the proper direction — 

 guns are fired, drums beaten, fires lit ; sometimes even the grass is set on 

 fire. The flames, as they hiss and roar, fill the tiger with terror, and soon 

 he is seen stealthily creeping away. He sees the nets ; they are too high 

 to leap over, too strong to burst through, the bamboo poles too weak for 

 him to climb up. He is compelled to advance inside the net till he comes 

 within range of the guns of the sportsmen. 



The English officials give tiger-hunts on a grand scale. Sometimes 

 as many as forty or fifty elephants are employed. Some bear the sports- 

 men, some are used to drive the game ; an infallible sign of the neighbor- 

 hood of a tiger is given by tiie elephant elevating his trunk and trumpet- 

 ing. The tiger has often been known to pull the hunters from their seats 

 on the elephant. 



A very ingenious mode of tiger-killing is employed by the natives of 

 Oude. 



They gather a number of the broad leaves of the prauss tree, which 

 much resembles the sycamore, and having besmeared them with a kind 

 of bird-lime, they strew them in the animal's way. Let a tiger but put 

 his paw on one of these innocent looking leaves, and his fate is settled. 

 Finding the leaf stick to his paw, he shakes it in order to rid him- 

 self of the nuisance ; and finding that plan unsuccessful, he endeavors to 

 attain his object by rubbing it against his face, thereby smearing the 

 bird-lime over his nose and eyes, and gluing the eyelids together ; then 

 he rolls on the ground, and rubs his head and face on the earth in his 

 efforts to get free. By so doing he only adds fresh bird-lime to his head, 

 body, and limbs, agglutinates his sleek fur together in unsightly tufts, 

 and finishes by hoodwinking himself so thoroughly with leaves and 

 bird-lime, that he lies floundering on the ground, tearing up the earth 

 with his claws, uttering howls of rage and dismay, and exhausted by 

 the impotent struggles in which he has been so long engaged. These 

 cries are a signal to the authors of his misery, who run to the spot 

 armed with guns, bows, and spears, and find no difficulty in dispatch- 

 ing their blind and wearied foe. 



Those who have hunted the tiger in a genuinely sportsmanlike 

 manner assert that it is a very cunning animal, and the color of the 

 sportsmen's dress is a matter of some importance. Experience shows 



