86 TIGERS. 



soon after, which put an end to my shooting on 

 foot. From that time to the period of my leaving 

 Chittrah, which was many years after, I always 

 went out to shoot on an elephant. The circum- 

 stance I allude to was as follows : Fifty or sixty 

 people were beating a thick cover, as before de- 

 scribed ; I was on the outside of it, with a man 

 holding my horse, and another servant with a 

 hog's spear; when those who were driving the 

 cover called suer ! suer ! which is the Hindoos- 

 tanee name for hog : seeing something move the 

 bushes about twenty yards from me, and supposing 

 it to be a hog, I fired at the spot, with ten or a 

 dozen small balls ; instantly on the explosion of 

 my gun, a tiger roared out, and came galloping 

 straight towards us. I dipped under the horse's 

 belly and got on the opposite side from him ; he 

 came within a few yards of us, and then turned off 

 growling into the cover. 



When the people came out, they brought with 

 them a dead hog partly devoured. These two 

 cases, I think, shew clearly that tigers are natu- 

 rally cowardly. They generally take their prey 

 by surprise, and whenever they attack openly, it is 

 reasonable to conclude that they must be extreme- 

 ly hungry, which I believe is often the case, as 

 their killing animals of the forest must be very 



