100 TIGERS. 



way they always do when on a tiger or panther. The 

 covert was very sparse, but we could see nothing, although 

 we beat every foot of it. Patterson then joined us, and 

 pointed out the spot where he had seen the tiger when he 

 shouted to me, but it had disappeared again immediately, 

 and our subsequent beats were blank. There was but one 

 spot where it could have got away unseen, viz., between 

 my post, which was vacated, and Patterson's tree, as it was 

 open ground elsewhere. In this instance there was every 

 accessory favourable for an accident, a wounded tiger in a 

 nullah among a lot of beaters. But why should I have 

 remained in my post after the beaters had passed it ? 

 Such a thing is never done without special orders. It 

 may be said that the beat ought to have been stopped 

 when the tiger was wounded, but this was uncertain, 

 as blood was not discovered till the beaters had arrived 

 within fifty yards of the end of the beat ; they were 

 preceded by dogs, and the covert was thin. It is 

 wonderful how a large animal like a tiger can conceal 

 itself on ground where there is barely cover for a hare. 

 As a rule, you will seldom see his outline when he is 

 attempting to hide or escape unseen ; there appears to 

 be a movement in the general colour of the herbage or 

 scrub jungle, but no outline is visible, merely an undefined 

 mass of vitality, which vanishes when motion ceases ; 

 and the same thing occurs with every wild animal, great 

 or small, from an elephant down to a woodcock. One 

 evening at Yemadody, a famous place for spotted deer, 

 about six miles from Santawerry, I had strolled out 

 with a rifle into some scrub jungle near a tank fringed 

 with forest trees, and was passing a clump of caroonda 

 bushes, close to a large peepul, when, a low growl reaching 

 my ears, I peeped through the bushes, and saw a tiger 



