COLONEL NIGHTINGALES LETTER. 215 



frantic signs to a marker, when out bounded a fine tiger in 

 front of me and was off before I could get hold of my gun. I 

 was now called to come back, so I pulled up and listened, and 

 hearing my dogs Toby and Crib barking, moved the elephant 

 to the spot. It turned out afterwards that the reason for all 

 the clamour on the part of the markers was that I had inter- 

 cepted no less than five tigers, they having devoured my 

 buffalo, and amongst them was the great man-eater called by 

 the villagers the 'Panura bhag.' On coming up to my dogs, 

 I could not see what they were at, till suddenly my man 

 pointed to a tiger about twelve feet from the ground in the 

 fork of a tree ; never expecting him to be up there, I might 

 have gone under him without seeing him. Of course in such 

 a position he had no chance so I put a ball through his heart 

 and giving him one under the ear to prevent revivals I left 

 him hanging, and chulled off the elephant to where I heard 

 loud shouts from the markers above. After going about 

 seven hundred yards as hard as we could lick, a tigress 

 suddenly rushed out of some thick bushes in front of the 

 huttie and went off at full speed ; I took a bang at her with 

 the right barrel of the Kennedy and dropped her stone dead 

 with a bullet through the heart ; she never even roared. 

 The mahout declared she had gone on but I felt I had killed, 

 and there she was on her back. At this crisis I heard more 

 shouts so started off in their direction leaving the tigress 

 as she lay, and after going nearly half a mile I came to 

 where another tigress not quite full grown was growling at 

 Toby. The mahout pointed her out to me as she sat looking 

 towards me and I dropped her dead with a ball from the 

 double. I now began to think I had got amongst a sounder 

 of tigers, and asked if any more were visible ? Oh, yes, was 



