BEATING FOR A TIGRESS. 115 



cow, who, gazing after her charging companions, was felled 

 to the ground before she was aware of any danger. Having 

 secured his supper, the tiger retired into the jungle till night- 

 fall, when he and his mate returned to share it in peace and 

 quiet. I had the pleasure to add this tigress shortly after- 

 wards to my list of game shot in that district, but her mate 

 eluded me. 



When a tiger has been foiled in its attack, or has been 

 driven off the prey it had seized, it often becomes most 

 furious, and fights desperately. I have not frequently re- 

 marked the same in defence of cubs, but on the contrary, 

 have observed that the mother appeared chiefly concerned 

 in taking off her young to some place of security unseen by 

 those in pursuit. 



We were out once enjoying glorious sport and making a 

 grand bag of big game in the Goalpara district, and had come 

 to our last day of that trip, when about noon intelligence was 

 brought by some herdsmen of a tigress being close at hand in 

 a jungle into which she had retreated on being driven off an 

 ox she had seized. The covert, consisting of close-growing 

 grass higher than the elephants, was a long, narrow strip of 

 about half a mile, with open fields on both sides, and a still 

 heavier and more extensive jungle at the further end beyond 

 an open space of a few acres. The tigress was said to be 

 lying at the upper end, which, accordingly, was entered by 

 our line of seventeen elephants and two howdahs, while J. 

 and I, mounted upon two steady and staunch beasts, going 

 ahead a few hundred paces, took up positions opposite each 

 other at points commanding openings in the heavy grass, and 

 there silently waited the advance of the line of beaters, ready 

 to fire in case the tiger retreated before them. When the line 

 had approached close to us, a tigress passed me rapidly, 

 crouching along the ground between the roots of the tall 

 grass, which, growing in bunches, offered an easy passage 

 below for animals, while the rank and intermingled leaves 

 above completely screened their movements from those in the 

 howdahs who followed her. Obtaining a bare glimpse, I fired 



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