268 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTKAL INDIA. 



deep shadow of the overhanging trees ; but, when nearly 

 opposite me, he came out into the middle, in the faint yellow 

 light of the just risen sun, and then he looked such a picture of 

 fearful beauty with his velvety step and undulating move- 

 ments, the firm muscles working through his loose glossy 

 skin, and the cruel yellow eyes blinking in the sun over a 

 row of ivory teeth, as he licked his lips and whiskers after 

 his night's feed. He passed within about twenty yards of me, 

 making for a small ravine that here joined the river from 

 the hills. I let him get to the mouth of this before I fired ; 

 and on receiving the shot he bounded forward into its cover 

 a very different picture from the placid creature I had just 

 been looking at, and with a roar that silenced the chattering 

 of every monkey on the trees. I knew he was hit to death, 

 but waited till the shikaris came up before proceeding to see ; 

 and we then went round a good way to where a high bank 

 overlooked the ravine in which he had disappeared. Here 

 we cautiously peeped over, but seeing nothing came further 

 down towards the river, and within fifty yards of where I 

 had fired at him I saw a solitary crow sitting in a tree, and 

 cawing down at an indistinct yellow object extended below. 

 It seemed like the tiger, and sitting down I fired another 

 shot at it ; but it never stirred to the thud of the ball, while 

 the crow, after flying up a few feet, perched again and 

 cawed away more lustily than before. We now went down, 

 and found the tiger lying stone dead, shot very near the 

 heart. 



I think it is the pranks of juvenile tigers, rather than the 

 serious enmity of old ones, that cause such a terror of 

 them to exist among the monkey community. The natives 

 say that the tigress teaches her cubs to stalk and hunt by 

 practising on monkeys and peafowl. The gorgeous plumage 



