until after she was dead that he looked up and saw 

 the tigress. So very corpulent was she, that I 

 thought she must be very heavily in cub, though 

 I subsequently found that one small foetus only 

 some nine inches in length was all that she 

 contained. 



At Bandipur, on the 22nd July 1885, a tiger 

 came rather nearer to me than was pleasant. 

 Colonel (now Brigadiat-General) P. C. (of the 

 Coldstream Guards) artd Major M. (of the Rifle 

 Brigade) were in camp with me. One afternoon, 

 after 4 o'clock, when C. and M. were both out 

 after bison (they had gone out early in the day), 

 I had just started to go for a stroll with my rifle, 

 when I met a man who told me that a cow of his 

 had been killed in the forest on the previous day 

 by a tiger. I at once called for my pony, and rode 

 off to the place guided by the owner of the defunct 

 cow. He was not very clear as to locality ; it re- 

 quired a good deal of searching to discover the 

 carcass, and when at last we succeeded in our 

 quest, there were a number of vultures busily 

 devouring it. Both hind-quarters and part of the 

 meat on the ribs had already been eaten. I ex- 

 pected that, should the tiger come at all, he would 

 advance from the front, so I had some stems of a 

 purple- flowered plant, which grew on the spot, 

 hastily stuck in the ground on my front and right 

 side, leaving my rear and left, in which directions 

 the Government road ran, uncovered. I lay on 

 the ground, with a forest peon who had charge of 

 a spare gun. Our arrangements had to be very 



163 



