io8 THE WILDERNESS AND JUNGLE 



India the natives make use of this taste to get 

 a tiger within shot. In order to do this, the 

 native climbs into the higher branches of a tree 

 close to the tiger's lair and begins to chatter 

 and to break off twigs just as monkeys do. 

 This business is kept up until a stir in the 

 bushes beneath betrays the tiger's presence and 

 interest in the proceedings, and then the native 

 suddenly drops a bundle on the ground and 

 screams. The tiger, thinking that, as some- 

 times happens, a baby monkey has fallen out 

 of its mother's arms, rushes out into the open, 

 and a rifle, posted in an adjoining tree, covers 

 it before it has time to realise its mistake. 



Tigers stalk their prey with extraordinary 

 cunning, but now and again, like all animals, 

 they make a mistake which may, if turned to 

 account, cost them dear. An instance of such 

 an error was reported some time ago in The 

 Field. A sportsman was sitting one moonlight 

 night in his machan, which is a platform 

 erected in a tree, from which sportsmen shoot 

 tigers and other game at night, and he was 

 able to watch, himself unseen, the novel and 

 interesting sight of a tiger stalking a sambur 

 hind. He could not get a shot for a long time, 

 for the simple but sufficient reason that the 

 tiger kept in deep shadow. Then, quite 

 unexpectedly, it made the last mistake of its 

 life, for it came out into the bright moonlight. 



