94 TIGERS. 



within a few hundred yards. Our bed cots had been placed 

 about a hundred yards off in an open space, in the moon- 

 light, but these nocturnal noises were not conducive to 

 sleep, so we had them shifted to safer quarters. The 

 shikaries said these were two male tigers who had been 

 paying their addresses to the tigress which had been shot. 

 They would not kill our ties, so we beat for them on 

 several occasions, but in vain. 



This being Manley's first tiger we duly celebrated the 

 event, the shikaries getting a goat for curry and extra 

 arrack, while we drew on our stock of champagne, which 

 was only broached on tiger killing days. 



This jungle consisted of a series of small rocky hills 

 full of caves and thickly covered with scrub jungle, not 

 of the usual deciduous kind, which is always bare of 

 foliage in the hot weather, but of evergreen shrubs 

 caroonda, jaman, bair, and the like which would render it 

 very difficult to see a tiger, while the features of the 

 ground made it highly improbable that beating would be 

 of any use. We therefore determined to sit up in case of 

 a kill, which, as above stated, did not occur. Such proce- 

 dure is allowable, and even advisable, in jungles akin to 

 this, but it is poor sport even if the tiger appears, which 

 he is most likely to do just about sunset. This plan may 

 also be adopted in the case of a "chor" (rogue) tiger, 

 which has been in the habit of absconding after killing, 

 and returning next evening to finish his repast. Tigers 

 are undoubtedly fond of gamey flesh, and will sometimes 

 lie near a kill until it is putrid. In the Annamullay Hills 

 they revelled on the carcases of bison in this condition, 

 and in the Mysore country the carcase of an elephant 

 several days dead was a great delicacy to the genus felis 

 tiger or panther. 



