31 



were distinctly traced not only by me but by several of my brother 

 officers. 



In justice to Blyth, I must mention that I have been told by the 

 keepers at the Madras People's Park that the panthers there never 

 LIE DOWN in the water. The magnificent tiger now there appears 

 to spend the greater part of each day in his tub. 



Any one who will watch a kitten at play can, from the way it 

 conceals itself, form a fair idea of the difficulty in finding, still 

 greater in shooting a panther among rocks. The instant the crea- 

 ture hears a footstep, or suspects that man or beast is approaching, 

 he sinks down on the spot, leaving only his ears and eyes peering 

 above a stone : if he thinks he is observed, down goes the head, 

 perhaps to be cunningly put up again to see if there is still safety, 

 but more likely when the man walks up to the spot his only view 

 of the " Will o' the Wisp"-like beast is one short glimpse as it 

 glides fast and silently as a snake through rock and bramble a long 

 way off ; or, if it has been much frightened or enraged, a bolt, or 

 rush, so headlong and rapid that merely the sharpest of snap shots 

 can be had at it. 



Well may Blyth say, vide Jerdon, page 100. " The pard is a 

 " particularly silent creature, very stealthy, and will contrive to 

 " dodge and hide itself in places where it would appear impossible 

 " that a creature of its size could find concealment." 



Jerdon says at page 100, that " they are popularly said to be 

 " much in the habit of climbing trees, but this habit does not seem 

 " to have been much noticed by late observers." That they get 

 into trees occasionally, there is no doubt : but I do not think that 

 they often do so from choice, or that they climb to any great height, 

 or unless when disturbed by dogs or beaters. 



The trees (for instance, rhododendrons of the Neilgherries, or the 

 bastard banyan, pepul, or burr, whatever the proper name may be, 

 " ficus religiosa," is, I believe, the botanical one, of most other parts 

 of this country) that grow about the sides of rocks, ravines, or hills 

 in which panthers are generally found, often have gnarled and dis- 

 torted trunks, which with their long, broad and mis-shapen limbs, 

 extending nearly horizontally across a ravine, or parallel to some 

 large stone or boulder and perhaps overgrown with moss, lichen, or 



