Tiger Shooting. 41 



indenting on the Commissariat for four, and as the 

 head of that Department was an old brother officer 

 and a great chum and his principal gomastha worked 

 as a contractor (sub rosa) under me, I got the 

 pick of the keddah and knew far more about the 

 elephants than did any one in charge of the 

 animals. 



On one occasion Archie C., lately Deputy Com- 

 missioner of Kamroop, then in the charge of the 

 Burpetta subdivision, and I were beating in the 

 dooars for whatever we could get. Our luck had not 

 been great ; for we had only bagged a couple of hog- 

 deer, when a givala appeared on the scene and told 

 us a family of tigers had killed no less than six of 

 his cattle. Now an Assamese cow or bullock is a 

 miserable little beast. One would scarcely suffice as a 

 meal for a leopard, so is therefore little more than a 

 flea-bite for his royal relation. On this account very 

 often tigers will kill a lot of cattle more than they 

 can consume drag them into densely- wooded nullahs 

 or jungles, where they are safe from the ken of carrion 

 birds, and there eat them at their leisure. The 

 higher the meat the more tigers seem to like it, and 

 woe betide any stray jackal that dares to encroach on 

 their larder, for the proprietor is never far off. But 

 to return to the givala s story. The cattle killed 

 were untouched several were not even cold so, 

 forming line, we beat straight ahead towards a small 

 bheel where there was sufficient water and cover to 

 afford tigers good shelter. General D. Hamilton no 

 mean authority has said that he has never seen a 

 tiger take a bath ; but then his experience was acquired 

 principally in the Neilgherry and other hill ranges, 



