THE BIOGRAPHY OF A TIGER 43 



By this time every little nullah murmured with a clear 

 running stream, all the soft earth fast bound again with 

 grasses, mosses, and a multitude of creeping plants. The 

 forests that had presented such a brittle, bare appearance 

 so short a while since were now matted together again 

 with a rapidly choking growth of tropical exuberance. 

 In every valley and dell the young grass formed a thick 

 velvety sward, and through the friable earth, " forced," as 

 it were, by the extraordinarily warm, moist, hothouse-like 

 atmosphere, came quickly pushing up a numberless variety 

 of ground-orchids, wild lilies of every hue, and wonderful 

 ferns both small and great. The hillsides were clothed in 

 maidenhair, and in the damp breeze that fanned the cliffs 

 wild plantains flapped their green and leathery fronds. 

 Wild life of all descriptions was abroad during the 

 day, and the cuckoo's voice completed the sensation of 

 spring. 



It was July; and from this season onwards, until the 

 cold weather sets in> four months later on, the tiger 

 becomes even more destructive than usual. The dense- 

 grown jungle precludes all view beyond a few short yards, 

 even the open glades are secret with long green grass, 

 and the clearly impressed plaster-like casts which his 

 heavy pads leave everywhere in the soft mud and clay 

 only exasperate by their mocking witness of his confident 

 proximity. Noiseless, invisible indeed as he was during 

 the time of dry leaves and snapping twigs, he is now an 

 unseen unheard unexpected death, a terror in the abstract. 

 The wind in the leaves, the patter of the raindrops, the 

 waving and soughing of the long wet grass, all more than 

 counterbalance the strong contrast which his red coat now 

 makes with the jungle that is so green. The first intima- 

 tion of his presence is his deadly clutch or paralysing rush 

 from within a few paces ; and every creature on which he 

 preys falls an easy, helpless victim. 



Our tiger therefore fared sumptuously during the period 



