THE TIGEE. 269 



of the latter, scattered about in a thousand radiant fragments, 

 often marks the spot where a peacock has thus fallen victim 

 to these ready learners, but the remains of a monkey are 

 seldom or never seen. Indeed these sagacious Simians rarely 

 venture to come down to the ground when young tigers are 

 about, though this sign is not always to be relied on as de- 

 noting the absence of tigers. I thought so for a long time, 

 till one day in the BeUul country, in 1865, after hunting long 

 in the heat of a May day for a couple of tigers whose marks 

 were plentiful all about, we came up to a small pool of 

 water at the head of a ravine, and saw the last chance of 

 finding them vanish, as I thought, when a troop of monkeys 

 were found quietly sitting on the rocks and drinking at the 

 water. I was carelessly descending to look for prints, with 

 my rifle reversed over my shoulder, and another step or two 

 would have brought me to the bottom of the ravine, when 

 the monkeys scurried with a shriek up the bank, and the 

 head and shoulders of a large tiger appeared from behind 

 a boulder, and stared at me across the short interval. I 

 was meditating whether to fire or retreat, when almost from 

 below my feet the other tiger bounded out with a terrific roar, 

 and they both made off down the ravine. I was too much 

 astonished to obtain a steady shot, and I was by that time ' 

 too well acquainted with tiger shooting to risk an uncertain 

 one, so they escaped for the time. I quickly regained my 

 elephant, which was standing above, and followed them up. 

 It was exceedingly hot, and we had not gone more than a 

 couple of hundred yards when I saw one of the tigers 

 crouched under a bush on the bank of the ravine. I got a 

 steady shot from the howdah, and fired a three ounce shell 

 at his broad forehead at about thirty yards. No result. It 

 was most curious, and I paused to look ; but never a motion 



