MY SOMALI BOOK 229 



expresses an opinion similar to that of Colonel Burton. 

 He indeed considers the tiger's power of scent to be 

 inferior to that of any other wild animal. He says, 

 " The tiger is not a scent-hunting animal, for his other 

 powers are so great that he can in his hunts, generally 

 pick and choose his dinner where he pleases," while 

 unlike other animals, he has no need to rely for his 

 safety upon the keenness of his scent. This writer 

 gives an interesting instance of a tiger cub whose dimiers 

 used to be dragged along the ground into some grass 

 out of sight, but the tiger would never put his nose 

 to the trail, but knowing his dinner to be somewhere 

 about " would go bounding round in circles with his 

 head high — looking for it with his eye and not with his 

 nose — so that we frequently saw him actually pass 

 right over his dinner without smelling or seeing it." * 

 Again, he states that he cannot recall a single instance 

 of ever having seen a tiger scenting up the drag of its 

 kill when it had been removed — and this not from 

 superior caution, for he says, " I have frequently seen 

 them wander round more or less aimlessly in circles 

 looking for their removed kill." 



On the other hand, he adduces evidence that 

 panthers can and do scent a drag. But this does not 

 necessarily prove that they make a practice of hunting 

 live game in this way, and all the evidence seems to 

 be against their doing so. And the manner in which a 

 panther can be shot at close quarters from a shelter 

 on the ground, which it would never approach if it 

 suspected human occupation, seems to me in itself 



* For a precisely similar case see the Bombay Natural History Society^s 

 Journal, Vol. XVIl., p. 531. 



