192 THE FORESTS OF UPPER INDIA 



out of the air. It announced, surely, the coming of the 

 wily depredator, whatever he might be. It must be a 

 large animal to kill a buffalo calf. My tortures of sitting 

 motionless, with strain on the eyes and ears, soon came to 

 a climax, and a very large panther walked coolly up to 

 its prey with the usual cat-like, gliding stride. As I 

 slightly turned the rifle to point it, the panther's wide- 

 open yellow eyes caught the motion, and he stared for 

 an instant straight in my face, at the same instant raising 

 his lips and showing his white teeth in a fierce snarl. But 

 at the same moment I covered him between the eyes, and 

 let off both barrels. The bullets both entered fair into 

 his brain, and he fell with the usual hollow roar. This 

 was a very fine male panther, measuring 8 feet, and very 

 fat and heavy. 



I often spent several hours of day or night sitting over 

 a kill, with more or less success. Most frequently in the 

 dark the leopard or tiger would come and eat some of the 

 carcase ; one heard the bones crunching, but could see 

 nothing. I fired at the sound, sometimes getting nothing, 

 or perhaps wounding only ; sometimes getting a skin. 

 On one occasion a leopard came across the muzzle of the 

 rifle about one yard off. There was only a thick clump 

 of bushes to sit in. The bullet went clean through the 

 leopard, and he fought and roared on the ground, much 

 too close to the bush for one's pleasure ; but he got up 

 and slunk away, and died in an adjoining cave. This 

 was in the night. Once I was with a very enthusiastic 

 R.E. lieutenant, who was eager for blood. A tiger had 

 killed two cows, and we tossed up for places to sit. The 

 tiger came in broad daylight, and I saw the yellow hide and 

 the stripes through some bamboos, moving slowly across. 

 He did not, however, come to either of the kills, and we 

 found afterwards that there was a third cow lying fifty 



