216 SPORT IX BENGAL. 



a rather small male of the grass variety, seven feet and an 

 inch in length, which had in the course of its nocturnal 

 prowl wandered into a cluster of villages, in which daylight 

 had surprised him. Previous to our arrival, he had given the 

 villagers a taste of his playful disposition, in sallies made 

 upon any men, women, children, dogs, goats, or poultry, 

 which happened to approach his lair. He seemed, however, 

 to have detected something in our appearance to induce a 

 change of tactics ; for, as long as he believed himself unseen, 

 he lay perfectly still, hugging the ground closely, but no 

 sooner did he know he was discovered, than with the pluck 

 and alacrity of his kind, he assumed the initiative, and 

 had he not been stopped at once by a fatal bullet, he would 

 have been on us at the next bound, after clearing the 

 matted tangle of thorns and weeds under which he lay in 

 ambush. 



The average native of Bengal, prone to exaggeration, 

 and discriminating with difficulty the variety and dis- 

 tinguishing features of wild animals, is apt to mislead the 

 sportsman, and to take him on a wild-goose chase ; to him 

 " bagh " is indifferently a tiger, a panther, a hyena, or even a 

 wild cat, and the size of the animal he reports is a mere 

 matter of petty detail, to be settled according to the power 

 of his imagination, the amount of the expected " bukshish," 

 and the gullibility of the recipient of his news. It is no 

 easy task to extract from the informant a correct account of 

 the general colour of the animal seen by him, for all dark 

 shades are to him black, pale ones white, and the rest red or 

 blue. One would naturally suppose that the marked dif- 

 ference in size and colour, between the tiger and the panther, 

 would enable the informant to state positively which of the 

 two had been encountered by him ; but frequently such is not 

 the case, and thus the eager young sportsman, who sallies 

 forth to slay his first tiger, may meet with only the tree 

 panther, or a cowardly hyena. The ordinary Bengalee vil- 

 lager, questioned regarding the bulk and height of the animal 

 he reports, will describe the tiger as about fourteen hands in 



