390 THE CARNIVORES 



renders it completely blind and helpless ; but Sir J. Fayrer states that he is unaware 

 of any authenticated instance where this method has been put in practice. 



No account of the tiger would be complete without some reference to the modes 

 of hunting or shooting adopted by Europeans and many of the native chiefs and 

 shikaris, but as all these are fully described in works more especially devoted to 

 sport, such reference will be of the briefest. One plan, especially favored by the 

 native shikari, who is less impatient of a solitary night watch than most Europeans, 

 is to build a platform or machan in a tree near the "kill," from which the tiger 

 may be shot on his return visit, a variation of this plan being to construct the 

 machan in any likely spot, and to tie up a goat, cow, or buffalo as a bait. The 

 uncertain light prevailing at the time of the tiger's visit renders shooting from these 

 machans far from certain. Throughout a large portion of Bengal, the Northwest 

 Provinces, Central India, and the Terai-land at the foot of the Himalayas, where 

 tigers are generally found in swamps and grass jungle the grass in the latter 

 being often from eight to ten feet in height, the common, and indeed often the 

 only practicable plan is to beat the jungles with lines of elephants ; the sportsmen 

 either shooting from their howdahs, or from machans placed in trees in positions 

 commanding the ways along which the tiger is likely to bolt. In other districts, 

 and more especially in parts of Bombay and Madras, tiger shooting is often 

 undertaken on foot. And, as Sir J. Fayrer observes, it is in this dangerous sport 

 that fatal and serious accidents are likely to happen, for no accuracy of aim or 

 steadiness of nerve can always guard against or prevent the rush of even a 

 mortally wounded tiger, that in its very death throes may inflict a dangerous or 

 fatal injury. 



Stories of hair-breadth escapes from tigers, both when shooting on foot and 

 from the howdah, might be collected almost by the hundred, but would be foreign 

 to our purpose. We may, however, mention that in many parts of India the tiger 

 is regarded by the natives with a superstitious awe, which prevents them from kill- 

 ing it, even when they have the power. As might be expected, this awe is more 

 developed among the superstitious Hindus than among the Mohammedans. In all 

 cases, however, it appears that the natives have no objection to the slaughter of the 

 tiger by Europeans. Frequently the tiger is regarded as tenanted by a spirit ren- 

 dering it immortal ; and in many districts the animal is never mentioned by its 

 proper name, sheror bagh, but invariably by some euphemism. Closely connected 

 with this superstition is the avidity with which the claws, whiskers, front teeth, 

 and the imperfect collar bones of the tiger are collected and preserved as charms by 

 the natives of many districts ; although by others they are held as deadly poisons, 

 and are destroyed as soon as possible. For these reasons a tiger skin with the 

 whiskers preserved is a rarity. 



THE IvEOPARD {Felts pardus) 



The third in point of size of the Old World cats is the leopard, or panther, a 

 species closely allied to the lion and tiger, from whom it is at once distinguished by 

 its coloration and inferior dimensions. In many works, written more from the 



