A BELGAUM TIGER 57 



him ; and then five or six pi dogs (village dogs, any 

 breed or no breed) joined in and tried to tackle 

 him, but he kept them more or less at bay. The 

 men came and we drove the dogs off, and found 

 that the chital had been shot through the back, 

 below the spine ; he was quite knocked out by that 

 and his fall. The men caught him md cut his 

 throat very speedily, and they thought they were 

 in luck's way, getting a good dinner so easily, and 

 the dinner belonging to some one else too ! the 

 man who had shot him. 



I have often taken measurements of animals and 

 afterwards of their skins to find out the difference 

 between them, and if many inches are gained or 

 lost. 



I have found, say, a 10 ft. tiger skin will measure 

 12 ft., if stretched fairly in proportion to its width. 

 But after being through the curer's and dresser's 

 hands the length of the skin will be practically the 

 same as the tiger when the first peg-to-peg measure- 

 ment was made. 



I found that a panther, which measured 7 ft. 5 in. 

 immediately after it was shot, only came out at 7 ft. 

 after it had been brought home and stiffness had 

 set in. 



We several times employed a Hindu taxidermist, 

 living in the Bombay Presidency, for setting up 

 heads, which, by the way, he did remarkably well. 

 He sent us one or two of his advertisement booklets 

 describing the kind of work he undertook, from 

 which I give some samples. They are of rather 



