INDIAN SHOOTING 215 



should be taken that red ants, which are hard to detect, are not 

 in it also ; an inspection of the trunk will usually decide the 

 question, especially if the boughs touch nothing else. In 

 selecting camping grounds particular attention to these points 

 is also necessary ; most servants do not take the trouble to 

 look up into the trees, and will light their fires under a bee's 

 nest till they have been properly stung once ; but their careless- 

 ness may result in the loss of ponies' or even men's lives. 



Sanderson remarks on the danger of firing at a tiger's head 

 except at very close ranges. The writer saw an instance of this 

 in a tigress hit on the side of the head with an Express bullet ; 

 she dropped in her tracks, lying with her head underneath her 

 for nearly a minute, when she recovered, went back into the 

 jungle, and gave a good deal of trouble afterwards, charging 

 the elephants freely. A shot through the shoulder is far more 

 likely to be effective. A tiger seems rather a soft beast, and 

 nearly always drops on receiving his first wound, though he 

 picks himself up pretty quickly. Subsequent wounds have 

 comparatively little effect on any animal, and another curious 

 thing that the writer has noticed is that wounded animals 

 nearly always lie down on their wounded side. 



Tigers do not seem to be very particular as to what they 

 eat. Sterndale records an instance of their eating carrion ; 

 Sanderson gives a story of three tigers killing and eating a 

 fourth, and of their eating bears ; and Colonel Kinloch told 

 the writer of his finding a snow bear killed by a tiger in Chumba, 

 on barasingh ground. Tigers seem to be yearly penetrating 

 deeper into the Himalayas ; probably they follow the ever- 

 increasing herds of cattle that come up from the plains in the 

 summer to graze. 



Sterndale gives an ingenious formula for finding the length 

 of a tiger from its skull. For details the reader is referred to 

 his book. 



In the following list of measurements only tigers of 

 10 ft. or over are mentioned except where weights are given 

 and of exceptionally large tigresses. The system of recording 



