TigeivShooting 259 



Judged by the standard of the greatest good to the 

 greatest number, the laws of humanity justify the 

 working of a tiger shoot, to my mind. 



Bullocks are tied up in the most likely places 

 always near water. The tiger, delighting in thick cover 

 near streams, visiting the spot on his nightly beat, kills 

 the bullock, drags the body away a few hundred yards, 

 and hides it under a bush, or somewhere where the 

 vultures will not see it. He makes a large meal at 

 once, drinks at the stream, and then lies down for 

 twelve hours or so in cool shade somewhere near at 

 hand. If undisturbed he will sleep during the day, 

 and returning to the carcase at night, continue his 

 meal. One bullock will last him three or four 

 nights. 



Therefore, upon visiting cautiously in the early 

 morning the tie-up, and finding that the bullock has 

 been killed and dragged off, the odds are greatly in 

 favour of the tiger's being somewhere close at hand. 

 He is, so to speak, located. 



And now it is worth while having a beat. And 

 here a really good shikari is absolutely necessary a 

 first-rate man, who knows all the ground, understands 

 exactly the right places to beat, and how to beat them, 

 and where to post his guns. 



The extraordinary, intuitive knowledge which a 

 few shikaris possess, makes it almost a dead certainty 

 as to which path a tiger will come along in a beat, 

 and has made sportsmen complain that tiger-shooting 

 is a well-planned, preconceived, cut-and-dried battue. 



