TIGER-SHOOTING. 169 



and one who has had much experience in shikar, 

 related the following incident to me : 



' In Kandeish the Bheels one day brought 

 "khubber" of two tigers. One was shot, but no 

 amount of search with the elephants could dis- 

 cover the other. At length beaters were sent in 

 to the cover, when the head and paws of the 

 other tiger were found quite fresh, and the rest of 

 his remains in the stomach of the tiger that had 



been shot. This happened to my brother, and 

 p ' 



I have been told by the Gonds that tigers are 

 very fond of frogs, and that they have been seen 

 catching them by hooking them out of shallow 

 pools with their claws. 



This habit is corroborated by Jerdon in his 

 Mammals of India.' At the place where I am now 

 residing a villager has a cat, who whenever she 

 has kittens to provide for (a pretty common 

 occurrence) invariably goes to a little[stream hard 

 by, and catches trout and eels. I have never seen 

 her in the act, but I have seen her returning 

 across a field with a quarter-of-a-pound trout in 

 her mouth ! If a cat should do this, why should 

 not a tiger eat frogs ? They must be nice cool 

 eating on a hot day, and to a tiger must taste 

 much as oysters do to us ! Anyhow tigers are no 

 worse in their taste for this peculiar delicacy 



