192 



" destructive a poacher his royal highness can be. It is evident, 

 " from a tiger's droppings, that he usually consumes the whole of 

 " the animal he slays, even to the very skin, as he voids large 

 " quantities of hair, on these hills it is invariably the hair of 

 " the sambur, so it follows again that he is a poacher of the 

 " first magnitude : that he will take a jungle-sheep or an ibex 

 " when he can get them, there can be little doubt. Of the latter 

 " the ibex* there is a case in point ; a gentleman having shot an 

 " ibex in the evening, it had fallen or escaped wounded some dis- 

 " tance down a rocky hill in the direction of the forest below, and 

 " it being too dark to prosecute the search that evening, it was left 

 " till the following morning, when, to the surprise of the sports- 

 " man, he found the animal half-eaten ; and in looking up the 

 " traces of the spoiler, found him in the shape of a royal tiger, 

 " quietly reposing after his full meal beneath a tree close to the 

 " edge of the wood, he paid the penalty of his interference with 

 " other men's goods with his life ; and a very fine tiger he proved 

 " to be. I omitted in my last to record another instance of crafti- 

 " ness on the part of the tiger in approaching his game, and which, 

 "lam told, the natives firmly believe in. It is stated by them 

 " that the tiger is often heard to reply to the bell of a sambur or 

 " call of a deer, and that he does so with a low muttering growl, 

 " or sometimes with a short impatient grunt ; at the same time 

 " stealing on quietly towards the sound of the deer's call. This 

 " answer of his seems to elicit a reply from the deer, and so the 

 " tiger, ascertaining with tolerable precision the position of his 

 " prey, is guided accordingly, stops his growling, and perchance 

 " secures a victim. Whether any shikaree has actually witnessed 

 " a capture under these circumstances, I am unable to say ; but I 

 " have the confirmation of the fact of the tiger replying to tho 

 " belling of sambur from more than one sportsman up here ; and 

 " the natives' reason for the tiger adopting this stratagem appears 

 " plausible enough. 



" Many years ago, there was a celebrated " man-eater" in Tin- 

 " nevelly, of whose career I have something to tell. He com- 



* See page 157. VAGRANT. 



