140 AUDACITY OF DEER BY NIGHT. 



upon the enclosed gardens of people resident in thickly 

 settled districts, which it must have required a vast 

 amount of skill and daring to accomplish, jumping or 

 boring their way through fences, which would appar- 

 ently have been amply sufficient to set their efforts at 

 defiance and they have continued to do this night 

 after night, for a long time, before tardy "justice" 

 has at length overtaken them, in the shape of a bullet 

 or a handful of " slugs " from the indignant house- 

 holder's musket. 



It is however quite exceptional for the larger and 

 more dangerous beasts of prey to exhibit such audac- 

 ity, and they in general confine themselves entirely to 

 attacks upon cattle, or other animals from whose 

 resistance they have nothing to fear. But there is 

 probably no game so hard to get a shot at, or to get 

 a sight of, as the larger beasts of prey where sports- 

 men are known to be about. These animals will then 

 seldom return to the same quarry at all after making 

 their first meal upon it ; or if they do so, it will only 

 be done with extraordinary precautions to avoid a 

 hidden enemy. They will stop and start at the rust- 

 ling of a leaf, and hie themselves away on the slightest 

 appearance of danger, quite as timidly as the gentle 

 spirited deer. 



Sometimes however, as we know, a tiger or other 

 beast will become a man-eater; and having once 

 turned his talents in that direction will frequently 

 become a veritable scourge to a wide district of 

 country. 



How this comes about it is somewhat difficult to 

 explain, and must always be very much a matter of 

 conjecture ; but probably if we were to hazard a guess 



