CLEVER SHIKAR TACTICS 



so different to the long, lithe, skinny animals on which I 

 had often gazed with such longing admiration in the Zoo ! 

 It was a grand and yet an awe-inspiring sight, for there is 

 something in the personality of a tiger which fills the mind 

 with thoughts such as no other wild animal inspires. With 

 the sportsman, suitably armed and bent on the destruction 

 of the beast, this feeling is not one of fear, but rather of 

 respect, as for a foe whom he knows instinctively will 

 require all his skill to beat. 



But what perhaps interested me as much as the tiger 

 itself was the way in which, under the directions of my 

 chief, the beat had been arranged. For while the main 

 body of the beaters were advancing through the jungle, 

 others had been posted up in trees, at twenty or thirty 

 paces' interval, as stops to prevent the animal sneaking 

 off unobserved, up some smaller pathway or ravine instead 

 of passing by my post. These tactics were admirably 

 carried out for, as already mentioned, there are no better 

 shikaris in India than the Bhils^or any who can compete 

 with them in the art of driving the quarry in the direction 

 required. 



Thus, each time the tiger had attempted to turn off to 

 right or left, the stop posted nearest to the spot had suc- 

 ceeded in preventing it, either by tapping lightly with his 

 stick upon a branch, or by giving a low cough these sounds, 

 slight as they were, being quite sufficient for the animal's 

 keen sense of hearing to detect. 



Finally he was driven up to within a hundred yards 

 of my machan and then, objecting to any further hustling, 

 came charging past my post at racing speed. Waiting 

 till I thought I had made certain of my shot, I fired, but, 

 seemingly, without effect, for the beast held on with 

 undiminished speed, covering with each bound some 

 fifteen feet at least. Continuing at this pace for about 

 five and twenty yards, he suddenly collapsed, falling into 

 some brushwood, where we found him later lying on his 

 side stone dead. 



There was great rejoicing in the camp that night, and 

 to celebrate the occasion Probyn insisted on my drinkng 

 the major portion of a bottle of champagne, for was not 

 this my first tiger, and killed with one shot too ? But, 



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