THE TIGER. 283 



with, his velvety step and undulating movements, the 

 firm muscles working through his loose glossy skin, and 

 the cruel yellow eyes blinking in the sun over a row of 

 ivory teeth, as he licked his lips and whiskers after his 

 night's feed. He passed within about twenty yards of 

 me, making for a small ravine that here joined the river 

 from the hills. I let him get to the mouth of this 

 before I fired; and on receiving the shot, he bounded 

 forward into its cover — a very different picture from the 

 j)lacid creature I had jus^t been looking at, and with a 

 roar that silenced the chattering of every monkey on the 

 trees. I knew he was hit to death, but waited till the 

 shikaris came up before proceeding to see ; and we then 

 went round a good way to where a high bank overlooked 

 the ravine in which he had disappeared. Here we 

 cautiously peeped over, and, seeing nothing, came further 

 down towards the river, and within fifty yards of where 

 I had fired at him I saw a solitary crow sitting in a tree, 

 and cawing down at an indistinct yellow object extended 

 below. It seemed like the tiejer, and sittingr down I 

 fired another shot at it ; but it never stirred to the thud 

 of the ball, while the crow, after flying up a few feet, 

 perched again and cawed away more lustily than before. 

 We now went down, and found the ti^er Ivino: stone 

 dead, shot very near the heart. 



I think it is the pranks of juvenile tigers, rather 

 than the serious enmity of old ones, that cause such a 

 terror of them to exist among the monkey community. 

 The natives say that the tigress teaches her cubs to 

 stalk and hunt by practising on monkeys and peafowl. 

 The gorgeous plumage of the latter, scattered about in 

 a thousand radiant fragments, often marks the spot 

 where a peacock has thus fallen victim to these ready 



