250 WILD MEN AND WILD BEASTS. 



dead, the others flew away. Next morning I measured the 

 distance with a cord, and to the best of my belief, the bird 

 was shot at 375 yards from the muzzle of the pistol. The 

 weapon was a medium-size Colt's revolver. 



While I was at Dhar I occasionally shot florican in the 

 grass plains to the east of the town. As the grass was two and 

 three feet high, I ordered out all the horsemen in the place, 

 and forming them into a long line, we beat tKe ground care- 

 fully. With seventy men I could cover a good bit of country, 

 and when a bird rose, I dismounted and followed him on foot, 

 generally bagging him on the second rise. On these plains we 

 occasionally started antelopes. Hyaenas and wolves too were 

 met with. I had a rifle carried by one of my men, and one even- 

 ing observing the head of a hyaena peering over the grass about 

 150 yards ahead of us, I fired and rolled him over dead. 



One morning a man sent me word that there was a pan- 

 ther in his house in the town of Dhar. Knowing that there 

 were generally panthers about the gardens and sugar-cane 

 fields outside the town, I at once went to his house, which I 

 found surrounded by a number of people. The panther was 

 said to be concealed among a heap of lumber in a dark loft, 

 so I mounted on the roof and proceeded to remove the tiles. 

 The open bamboos on which they were supported guarded 

 me from any sudden charge ; and it was well for me that 

 they were there, for the panther made a rush at the opening, 

 but was shot through the head, and fell back dead. I had 

 previously taken the precaution to clear all the people out of 

 the lower part of the house, and could therefore fire down 

 with safety. The panther was about two-thirds grown. He 

 had probably entered the town at night in quest of a pariah 

 dog, and b' ing scared by some early riser, had taken refuge in 

 the loft where we found him. 



