A TIGRESS AND HER CUBS 



And now having, to the best of my ability, endeavoured 

 to initiate the reader into the mysteries of tiger shooting 

 as practised in the Presidency of Bombay, I will go on to 

 relate some of my own experiences and adventures with 

 these animals, both during my term of office as Tiger 

 Slayer to Government and subsequently in my ordinary 

 official life as a District Police Officer. 



To give an account of every tiger I have slain would 

 make as tiring reading as it would be tedious to record.* 

 I will confine myself therefore to recounting such incidents 

 only as were specially exciting, or tend to confirm the 

 opinion I have expressed as to the merit or defects of the 

 various rifles I have referred to in the preceding chapter. 



To begin then with an adventure I experienced while 

 encamped at the village of Langdi Bawanee, a deserted 

 Bhil hamlet in the Satpuda Hills. 



I was out one morning looking for sambar, when we 

 came on the fresh tracks of a tigress and two cubs, leading 

 to a deep, rocky ravine, banked on either side by high 

 grass and reeds. Having only a couple of men with me, 

 I sent to the nearest village, six miles distant, for some 

 beaters. 



By the time these arrived it was nearly 5 p.m., so as 

 there was little time to lose, I selected a tree, at the lower 

 end of the covert, and, mounting into it, told the beaters 

 to drive the tigress towards me. 



As the men came along the tigress showed herself for 

 an instant, and then retiring under a mass of green foliage, 

 lay perfectly still. 



Making a signal to the beaters with my hand, indicating 

 the position which the tigress had taken up, I waited 

 patiently. Presently one of the men, neglecting my ex- 

 press instructions to keep well together, approached the 

 spot alone from above and throwing a stone into the 

 foliage was promptly charged by the tigress. 



He ran for some trees, where his comrades had taken 

 refuge on hearing the tigress roar, closely followed by the 

 infuriated beast. Two more strides and she would have 



* Mr. Digby Davies has shot to his own rifle over 250 tigers and has 

 assisted at the destruction of many others. 



35 



