VARIETY OF GAME. 129 



ground in some places was pretty clear of forest, and 

 where tracts of long grass, intersected by streams, were 

 interspersed with patches of cultivation, sedgy marshes, and 

 bush jungle, in which kind of ground the black partridge 

 delights. Here were also to be found hares, pea-fowl, 

 jungle -fowl, wild -fowl, grey partridges, plovers, several 

 kinds of snipe and quails, and sometimes a floriken, a 

 few sand-grouse, and occasionally a woodcock, &c. 



When beating for small game, a sounder of wild pigs, or 

 a deer, was not unfrequently driven from among the long 

 grass and bushes, and I have known of a leopard, and even 

 the striped king of the forest, having been disturbed in like 

 manner. But as regards the two latter, such instances were 

 rare, as feline animals, although numerous in the adjacent 

 jungles, seldom ventured during the daytime into the open. 

 Just before nightfall, however, they often prowled out after 

 the village cattle. I remember, one evening when skirting 

 along the margin of the forest after any game that might 

 chance to turn up, coming unexpectedly upon a tiger as it 

 was coolly taking its way down a wood-carting track towards 

 the open country. This animal, when he saw our elephants 

 slowly advancing within eighty yards, merely stopped short 

 and slowly retraced his steps. The shot which I lost no 

 time in letting go, was replied to by the deep guttural grunt 

 which a tiger almost invariably gives vent to when a bullet 

 tells on him. Wheeling suddenly round, he struck a heavy 

 blow with his paw at a tree that stood in his way, and forth- 

 with charged straight down on the line. Grunting forth his 

 wrath, he dashed open-mouthed right in among the ele- 

 phants, when a lucky bullet from one of the other guns 

 caught him in the head and stopped his further progress 

 instanter. The first shot was found to have gone clean 

 through him, close behind the shoulders. This serves to 

 show what a tiger is capable of doing after being mortally 

 wounded. On another occasion, in broad daylight, I shot 

 a leopard in a jungly ravine, within a few hundred yards 



I 



