Tigers, Gaur and Leopards. 153 



would not greatly interfere with the shooting of any 

 animals presenting themselves. I am very unlucky 

 as a rule in this mode of sport, and am not therefore 

 partial to it ; but the day was too advanced for 

 stalking, so I accepted the position and hoped for the 

 best. The Burmese, when you can induce them to 

 beat for game, if left to themselves, go very quietly 

 to work, use no tom-toms, or other discordant instru- 

 ments which are probably necessary for driving out 

 feline, but do more harm than good when beating 

 for deer or inoffensive game, the deafening noise 

 being heard for miles around, and at the first sound of 

 the drum the game is on the move and is seldom 

 seen. But when armed with split bamboos, and 

 moving along in a row, extending about two yards 

 apart, and giving a tree or a bush a tap now and then, 

 the noise is just sufficient to send a beast on ahead, 

 and does not frighten it out of its seven senses and make 

 it go here, there and everywhere. Along the ridge, 

 where there were a few trees, three men had been 

 placed as stops and the other twelve, few enough in 

 all conscience, forced their way through the grass and 

 jungle. The beat commenced fully half a mile from 

 me, and very soon after pea fowl, jungle fowl and an 

 occasional yit moved along the bed of the nullah. 

 Had I not been looking out for something in the way 

 of deer, I might have made a pretty bag of these 

 beautiful birds, but of course I allowed them to go by 

 " scot free," and they were happily unconscious of the 

 danger they ran. In a quarter of an hour after the 

 beat commenced only feather bipeds were seen, but 

 presently one of the stops indicated that something is 

 coming this way. His tap-tap was succeeded by that 



