INCIDENTS IN TIGER SHOOTING 



and returned to Maddur, whereupon, after hastily 

 swallowing some food, I rode to the scene of the 

 kill. The dead buffalo was lying in jungle com- 

 posed of large clumps of bamboo, and close to 

 the edge of the cultivation. Both hind-quarters 

 had been eaten. As there was no suitable tree 

 handy, the median had been made by erecting 

 four upright posts and then building thereon. I 

 began my vigil at about 4 p.m. Half an hour 

 after I commenced my watch, I saw the tigress 

 (for so it proved to be) advancing to the kill across 

 my " left front. I seemed, in some subtle way 

 which I cannot define, to have become aware of 

 her presence even before I saw her. My first 

 shot through the shoulder knocked her over, and 

 she then got up and danced on her hind legs, 

 whereupon I put in two more bullets, which 

 finished her. Three out of the six cartridges 

 which I had taken with me had thus been well 

 expended ! 



Having bagged a tigress and a panther, and 

 wounded and lost a tiger, all within a few days, I 

 was very sanguine of further success at Naganipur 

 during the Christmas holidays. This, however, 

 was not to be, for though I sat over three tigers' 

 and one panther's kills, and also watched with a 

 kid picketed as a bait for panthers on each of seven 

 evenings, I did not even see either tiger or panther, 

 though one of the latter took poor old Carlo from 

 close beside my tent which was pitched in open 

 ground, one evening, while I was sitting over a 

 tiger's kill, carried him off, and devoured him ; and 



149 



