CHAPTER VII. 



Tigers and Tiger-shooting Sport always Uncertain without previous 

 good Intelligence A large Tiger lost unaccountably Good Sport 

 dependent on trained and staunch Elephants and " Mahouts "- 

 Patience and Perseverance rewarded Tigers often found in 

 Families of three or four Close Shots and clean Misses at three 

 Tigers An old Native " Shikaree's " Nerves unstrung Tigers' Love 

 of Slaughter Tigers stalking Cattle Finding and Death of a 

 furious Tigress Tigers' Love of Wandering A Tigress shot in the 

 midst of a Village. 



THERE is no sport more uncertain than tiger- shooting when 

 followed with a line of elephants, on the chance of finding 

 tigers in a beat across country, and without pretty certain 

 intelligence previously obtained of their presence ; or when 

 attempted before the grass and reed jungles have been burnt 

 down. Even when such coverts undoubtedly hold tigers, 

 they may not be viewed at all, or if seen for an instant 

 may disappear in a perfectly marvellous manner. In the 

 midst of very tall and rank reeds a tiger may be walking 

 only a few paces ahead of the elephant, whose legs are plainly 

 visible to him, although he himself is never once sighted by 

 the sportsmen in the " howdahs." Under such circumstances 

 a crafty tiger will frequently outflank the line of elephants 

 by taking a diagonal course, and then, turning back, will get 

 behind his enemy's line and make off to some secure retreat ; 

 or moving rapidly ahead he will take to water to conceal his 

 tracks, and crossing it will lie up in some morass into which 

 the elephants dare not follow him. Not an uncommon strata- 

 gem is to slip down into a " nullah " or ravine, and to seek 

 concealment in the thick grass or bushes growing under the 

 overhanging banks where the stream in flood has eaten 

 away the soil ; but such artifice will rarely prove successful, 



