157 



hangs about a rock on which an old " saddle-back" has been sun- 

 ning himself at the edge of a cliff, while he is looking down on the 

 low-lands, hundreds of feet, in sheer fall below him, is at times 

 far too strong to be pleasant ; and the rocks on which a herd have 

 been playing or resting, smell like a stable in which goats have 

 been kept. These last signs and others we came across, but not 

 an ibex could be seen. We had that morning close to the place 

 come on the foot-prints of a large tiger that had evidently kept to 

 the same path we followed, and had crossed some of the lovely run- 

 ning streams of the Koondahs at the same spots that we did. My 

 gun-carrier had just whispered to me, in despair, that the ibex 

 must have seen this tiger and bolted into the low country when 

 some marks of blood and hair on the grass, a few feet in front of 

 us, attracted his attention ; just beside them we found, very little 

 damaged, the body of a fine doe ibex, probably the sentinel of the 

 herd, which, while resting on the very edge of a cliff and looking 

 out below, had been crept upon by her noiseless foe from above 

 and caught, as a cat would capture a sparrow. That a tiger, and 

 a large one too, was in this case the aggressor, there could not be 

 a doubt ; but although there was very little doubt that he would 

 return ere sunset to finish his repast, he had only eaten a part of 

 one hind quarter. I could not afford time to wait for him as I had 

 to return the following morning to Ootacamund en route to the 

 plains, so contented myself with the head. I do not think that 

 he ever did return however, for on my next visit to the Koondahs, 

 in the following February, only a few weeks ago, I found the 

 bones nearly perfect, which would not have been the case had he 

 finished his meal. Being on the very edge of a precipice, on which 

 they could not have expected to find much to eat, the dainty dish 

 had escaped the notice of even such keen-scented foragers as the 

 wild dog, or the jackal. 



No- 71- Bos-Gaums- 



JERDON, No. 238, PAGE 301 ; THE GAUR, BISON OF 

 SPORTSMEN IN MADRAS. 



Jerdon's remark regarding this fine animal that it was also 

 formerly an inhabitant of Ceylon, but has been extinct there for 



