A HUGE ALLIGATOR BAGGED 



feathers, which detracts much from an otherwise very 

 handsome bird. 



The natives regard these birds with some degree of 

 veneration as they do also the peacock, hence, like the latter, 

 they are seldom shot by Europeans, or at any rate by 

 such who know the custom of the country, for it is bad 

 policy to ignore the feelings of the people in such matters, 

 especially from a sporting point of view. 



On the opposite side of the Tapti river, all along the 

 edge of the bank, there were many huge alligators lying 

 basking in the sun. One day, while walking along the bank 

 near our tent, I saw one of these monsters, which hiid 

 crawled out of the water, and lay in such a position that I 

 was able to approach him. 



On reaching a sheltering bush, about fifteen yards from 

 this brute, I fired two barrels into him before he could reach 

 the water, which he managed to get to, however, and 

 throwing himself into it, lashed about furiously with his 

 tail for some time, but finally sank. 



Next morning we found him close to the bank, but quite 

 dead, and the villagers, fastening a rope to the carcase, 

 pulled him out. He was a huge brute, over ten feet in 

 length, with a most formidable pair of jaws. On cutting 

 him open, we found a large quantity of pebbles, also re- 

 mains of glass bracelet and cloth, proving that he had de- 

 voured some wretched woman, whom he had evidently 

 caught when she had been fetching water from the river. 



Alligators — or muggurs, as the natives call the snub- 

 nosed variety of the crocodile — are very bold in their attack. 

 I have known of a pet dog been carried off while drinking 

 at the river, within a few yards of where its master was 

 standing. Goats, deer, and bullocks too occasionally, are 

 also seized most cunningly by these brutes. 



In shooting them I have found that unless shot dead 

 l)y a bullet in the head or neck, as already stated, they will 

 invariably struggle into the water eventually returning to 

 I he bank, if not disturbed, to die. 



When shooting wild-fowl, if a dog is used to retrieve 

 hirds, it is «(>rtain, sooner or later, to be seized by one of 

 tlust s;iuii;ins, and if a duck — woundctl or dead — falls into 

 the water anywhere in the vicinity of one of these reptiles, 



SOT 



