A PANTHER BAYED BY DOGS. 213 



enjoy the fun and to court the combat. I am confident that 

 I have seen in the countenance and eyes of a panther so 

 circumstanced, an expression of fun, diabolical mischief, and 

 keen enjoyment, all mingled, and palpably displayed. Once 

 I obtained a good run in the open with dogs before the beast 

 went to bay, and the thing came about in the following 

 manner : 



I was out one evening after jackals with a brace of grey- 

 hounds and four or five terriers and bull-terriers, which last I 

 had put into some trees and bushes round a village, and was 

 somewhat surprised by the long-continued baying which 

 ensued, attributing it to the finding of a porcupine, an animal 

 very common throughout Bengal, but rarely seen, it being 

 nocturnal in its habits, and subterranean in its habitations. 

 On riding up to the dogs, I found them " backing and filling " 

 in a strange way, their ordinary practice being a bold and 

 prompt assault upon all and sundry vermin ; they seemed, too, 

 unusually excited and angered, their hair bristling on end, 

 and their movements exhibiting the utmost rage combined 

 with some dread. As I came up and encouraged them with 

 my voice the dogs made a fierce onslaught in a body, and up 

 rose a tree-panther from under my horse's nose, and bolted 

 into the open fields, closely pursued by the terriers and bull 

 terriers, joined afterwards by the greyhounds, slipped without 

 orders by their attendant, who lost his presence of mind, as 

 is not uncommon in such cases. 



The panther went over the ground with long bounds at 

 great speed, holding his head and tail high, and keeping well 

 in advance of the terriers ; but on finding himself overhauled 

 by the "long dogs" he wheeled to the right and circling 

 round, returned to the spot from which he had started, and 

 immediately climbed high up a tree. The chase for the short 

 time it lasted was both exciting and interesting ; as pursuers 

 and pursued, we were all close together after the turn had 

 been made, and the terriers came in by a short cut ; but I 

 doubt much whether the greyhounds would have ventured to 

 seize, as the others would have done if they could have over- 



