PANTHER SHOOTING 



be exercised in following him up. Do not despise 

 him because he is smaller than a tiger. He is 

 smaller, it is true, but he is even more likely to 

 fight than is a tiger ; his teeth and claws are very 

 formidable weapons ; and his agility is marvellous, 

 and surpasses that of the larger feline. 



Natives sometimes several at a time are 

 frequently mauled, and even killed by panthers 

 when the villagers have found one of the brutes 

 in a garden, or in a sugar-cane field, and have 

 set to work to mob him. 



Mr. B. (of the Mysore Revenue Survey) had 

 often heard that panthers do not fear a lantern, put 

 up on the mechan and throwing a light upon the 

 kill, on a dark night when shooting would otherwise 

 be impossible. He tried it one night, and had 

 shots at two panthers before eight o'clock, bagging 

 one and missing the other. 



This method is practised with great success in 

 the Himalayas, as it is related by " Mountaineer." 



My own impression is that a panther is so cunning 

 an animal that he reasons a little beyond himself 

 sometimes (animals do reason), and so occasionally 

 comes to grief. 



How otherwise can we reconcile "Mountaineer's" 

 bagging of panthers by tying up a bait and setting 

 a light close by ? It may be argued that the 

 panther is accustomed to prowl round villages and 

 to see lights ; but it may also be as reasonably sug- 

 gested that he reasons within himself that where 

 there is a light, no preparations have been made to 

 do him any harm. It may also be the result of 



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