CHAPTER VII 



A rare chance A bull bison and a tiger Hopes of a record " Right and 

 left " Beating on spec The bull bison viewed Changing my rifle 

 About to pull the trigger The tiger appears on the scene An 

 unparalleled situation A chance of making history Another change 

 of rules Fatal hesitation The tiger alarmed Making off at a gallop 

 A difficult shot The record unachieved The tigress shot The 

 light rifle scores for once Another tiger killed Evidence in favour 

 of the heavier weapon Experience gained as tiger slayer Some 

 remarks on tigers Varieties of the species Hot and cold weather 

 coats Colour a sign of age Muscular development " Lucky bones " 

 Cattle-killing and bill tigers Difference in weight and size Length 

 of tigers Methods of measurement Age difficult to determine 

 How a tiger kills its prey Manner of eating Not necessarily nocturnal 

 in its habits An example The tiger's attack Wounds generally 

 fatal Time of breeding Number of cubs produced Devouring their 

 young Feeding the cubs Cubs as pets Tiger fat and rheumatism 

 Milk of tigress as medicine Adventures of a sample Legends 

 and superstitions A curiosity in tigers Declared a new species 

 The mystery solved Disillusion. 



IT was seldom, even in the India of thirty years ago a 

 period when its jungles were swarming with big game 

 that a sportsman had the luck to find himself simultaneously 

 confronted with two such noble quarry as a bull bison and 

 a tiger ! Yet such was the rare, though somewhat em- 

 barrassing, situation I was placed in one evening when 

 out shooting near my camp. 



I was returning home after a fruitless search for bison 

 accompanied by my henchman Bapu, when we came 

 across his co-tracker Etoo, and the remainder of the 

 men, who had been in a different direction, also looking 

 for tracks. They informed us that they had come on 

 the fresh pugs * of a tiger early in the morning and had 

 followed them to the edge of a hill where, the ground being 

 hard and stony, they had lost them. 



* Footprints. 



44 



