CREATURES OF THE WILDERNESS 121 



Mysore. My informant was walking along 

 a jungle-path a couple of hours before day- 

 light hoping to get a shot at sambur stags at 

 dawn, when he and his two shikaris were 

 suddenly arrested by the sound of animals 

 moving in the dry bamboo leaves close by. 

 They crouched down on the chance of getting 

 a shot at the animals, whatever they might 

 be, as they crossed a small open space imme- 

 diately ahead. Suddenly they saw a tiger 

 circling the party, with the object of getting 

 behind and above for a spring. The English- 

 man immediately put up his "500 express and 

 fired at the tiger's right shoulder, whereupon 

 it vanished down a deep nullah. Just before 

 daylight, a cub showed up in the tiger's tracks 

 and then retired again. Then the day came, 

 and they set about following the tiger up. 

 They were not long in coming on the animal, 

 which proved to be a tigress. She had gone 

 only a hundred yards and had then died, sit- 

 ting up for all the world like one of the lions 

 in Trafalgar Square and holding in her mouth 

 a huge bunch of grass that she had seized in 

 her rage. She must, indeed, have been in the 

 act of springing when fired at, for the bullet, 

 instead of penetrating behind the shoulder, 

 had entered the centre of the chest, raked the 

 heart and come out behind the ribs. 



It now remained to secure the cubs, and 



