292 INTELLIGENCE OF A TIGER. 



thougli it was sprung by a famous tiger — the " Don," to be mentioned fur- 

 ther on — we never got hold of him, I used to set it by cutting a recess in 

 a thorny bush, and tying a goat inside, with the trap, covered with a few 

 twigs or grass, at the entrance ; the ends were thrust into adjoining bushes. 

 How the Don found the snare out the first time we could never tell, but 

 he forced his way tlirough the bush from behind and took away our goat. 

 He did this again at a second place. The third time we fenced the goat in, 

 except on the side of the trap, with such horrible thorns that even the 

 Don could not get through them. This time he sprang the trap, and 

 must liave jumped back at the same instant : he then secured tlie goat. 

 We tried the trap at different places ; but lie took the goats away, springing 

 the trap each time, and then carrying them off at his leisure, so frequently, 

 that we had to bring back our inglorious trap after the loss of a small flock 

 of goats, and I never tried it again. This showed astonishing intelligence in 

 this tiger — a point in which the animal is entitled to rank high in the brute 

 creation. The shrewdness displayed by them on occasions — shrewdness 

 removed from mere instinct — is very marked. The most unsophisticated 

 tigers, after being hunted unsuccessfully once or twice, become so alive to 

 danger from any source that it is most difficult to circumvent them. 



