MOONLIGHT SCENE. 323 



there seemed every chance of her being dead, we formed our plans on the 

 supposition of finding her still in the flesh, and allowed no one to go in but 

 experienced hands. 



I remember an impressive scene by moonlight when watching for a 

 tigress, and I might have seen a bullock seized on this occasion had I not 

 hurried matters at the critical moment. A tigress had killed a cow towards 

 daybreak not far from Morlay, and having no time to eat it had dragged 

 the carcass into a thicket, going herself two miles away to lie up for the 

 day. As there was no chance of getting a shot at her when eating in 

 the thicket, I had a live bullock tied to a stump in a perfectly open space 

 a few yards from the carcass, and a comfortable mechdn prepared in a tree 

 near. This was one of the favourable occasions which should be chosen 

 for watching. We had tracked the tigress to a distance, so that our pre- 

 parations could not alarm her ; whilst, not having eaten any of the carcass, 

 she was certain to return early in the night. 



I commenced to watch at 5 p.m. Daylight had given way about seven 

 o'clock to a brilliant moon that rendered everything almost as distinct as in 

 the day, when I heard the distant, low, grating voice of the tigress as she 

 came up from the cool river-covers where she had spent the hours of a hot 

 Indian day. 



The first intimation I had of her close approach was an uneasy move- 

 ment of the bullock, which had been quietly eating some grass with which 

 we had provided him to make his last moments as happy as possible. I 

 had expected his immediate seizure on the tigress's arrival, and with a view 

 to keeping as still as possible till the noise of the scufBe commenced, I was 

 lying at full length on the elephant-pad, where I had made myself comfort- 

 able with a pillow. A hole six inches square had been left in the leafy 

 screen, just above my head, through which to fire. 



On hearing the bullock start I raised myself slowly and saw the tigress 

 sitting on her haunches within six feet of the bullock, eyeing him. He 

 was secured to a low stump with only three feet of rope, the remainder 

 being wound round his horns ; the tigress was facing me about three feet 

 beyond the stump, the unhappy bullock being at the length of his short 

 tether with the stump between him and the tigress. There was a quiet 

 bloodthirstiness in the scene which was very impressive, and made me re- 

 member, even in the excitement of the moment, the many evidences I had 

 seen of similar scenes of unwitnessed midnight bloodshed. 



The tigress knew that the bullock could not escape her, but her air was 

 not one of gloating over her victim, but of some suspicion regarding the rope 

 round his horns. I was only ten feet from the ground, and thirty from the 



