H4 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR 



home preserves, and they played the game, and were 

 shot under the easiest circumstances imaginable. 



They were both very thieving panthers and had 

 stolen many of the cattle and goats on the hill. I 

 received a note to say that a calf had been killed 

 close to Government House and, as there was no 

 one there at the time to shoot it, would I come? 

 I went to see the place, which was close to the tennis 

 grounds. A cow, in trying to save her calf, had 

 been badly mauled by the panther and had escaped, 

 but was so badly hurt she was now in a dying condi- 

 tion, and her calf had been killed and half eaten; 

 the head and shoulders remaining were dragged 

 some little way and hidden under bushes. I 

 arranged where the machan was to be put, which 

 was in a very small tree, there being no big ones near ; 

 they fixed it only a few feet from the ground and much 

 lower than I intended. 



I went out at four o'clock and took up my position 

 in this rather lowly seat, where I could almost have 

 touched a panther coming up to the kill with the 

 end of the rifle, though I was fairly well hidden from 

 anything below by leaves and thick bushes. There 

 were a good many people, gardeners, coolies and 

 water-carriers, working and walking to and fro only 

 fifty yards away they were talking loudly and 

 calling to each other at their work; there was a 

 creaking of carts and barrows and I was prepared 

 to wait for a couple of hours when they would leave 

 off work and things would quiet down. All this 

 noise did not seem to worry the panther, however, 

 for very soon, and to my surprise, he appeared 



