44 PONY KILLED BY TIGER 



It was now wet weather, and too early for butter- 

 tlies ; but my time was fully occupied in getting the 

 native collectors acquainted with the work I wished of 

 them, establishing different stations, &c., and then in 

 spare time beating the flowering bushes, with a light 

 but closely woven circular basket held underneath, to 

 collect the small, but highly interesting, coleopterous 

 insects that abound in such places. I felt convinced 

 that the place would eventually prove rich in Lepi- 

 doptera, and in this I was not disappointed. 



On April 23 I was informed that a tiger had killed 

 a pom% and upon proceeding to the spot found the 

 pony to be one that my boy and myself had noticed 

 feeding the day before. The tiger must have been 

 an enormous brute, as his footmarks measured oi 

 inches across. I found during my stay that tigers 

 are very numerous in this district, and that they do 

 much damage to the live-stock of the natives, which 

 consists of horses, ponies, cows, and pigs. They never, 

 as far as I could learn, attack human beings, and the 

 natives are strangely careless in the protection of their 

 live-stock. Pigs, for example, are usually kept in a 

 small bamboo pen by the side of the hut, and if one is 

 taken out by a tiger, the owner will replace it as soon 

 as he is able ; but the idea of using a few more bamboos 

 in making the pen or sty secure against another attack, 



