220 BIG GAME SHOOTING 



he never would do it again, till the next absolute certainty has 

 been oifered him with the usual disappointing result. 



When a panther is in the habit of attacking flocks on their 

 way home in the evening, a good plan is to select a place before 

 the flock returns, and arrange with the shepherd that he shall 

 drive the flock past your hiding-place and tether a kid as he 

 passes ; the apparent absence of pre-arrangement will probably 

 induce the panther to show at once. 



Sanderson gives some stirring accounts of his adventures 

 with panthers in which the following points are particularly 

 noticeable, viz. the necessity of posting markers outside the 

 cover beaten to watch the panther if he leaves it ; that panthers 

 will not charge out of caves even if poked up with bamboos ; 

 that, unHke most tigers, a panther charged home at a large 

 party of men closed up, and used his paws, cuffing right and left 

 instead of biting. Not that a panther never bites, as the beast 

 referred to had bitten a man previously, but in nearly all cases 

 of men being mauled the bulk of their injuries are claw wounds. 



Sterndale relates a curious legend about a well-known man- 

 eating panther that killed over two hundred people in three 

 years, and was supposed to be a kind of Wehr-wolf. Panthers 

 have often been ridden down and speared, but two or three men 

 are required for this amusement, as on the first horse overtaking 

 it the panther will at once crouch and endeavour to spring on 

 the horse's back as he passes. The second horseman should, 

 therefore, be close up ready to cut in at once ; care should be 

 taken to get the first spear home in a good place, and the 

 panther should be held down if possible, till despatched by the 

 spears of the rest of the party. It is foolhardiness for a single 

 man to attempt it. Panthers climb readily, and many have 

 been shot out of trees where they have taken refuge, or been 

 found lying asleep on a branch. Forsyth considers that many 

 panthers escape in drives by taking to trees, and mentions 

 finding the body of a child, that had been killed by a panther, 

 lodged in a forked bough. 



The troopers of the Central Indian Horse used often to kill 



