MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 327 



administer such punishment as to make him glad to retire if still able to do 

 so ; in the meanwhile the shikari himself, who is presumably either follow- 

 ing the herd or posted in a position to command the scene of operations, 

 watches his opportunity for a shot, either before the buffaloes have made 

 up their mind to assume the offensive or when the tiger has determined 

 on retreat. I think it may be assumed, in the great majority of cases at any 

 rate, that a tiger when wounded (even slightly) will not try to evade the 

 buffaloes and slink away unperceived. The above is the theory based 

 on sound general principles, by th« practical application of which everything 

 may work out smoothly and the tiger be finished off without any great 

 danger. Let us now take individual instances where everything was not 

 perfection. 



(A.) On 20th April, 1892, at about 3 p.m., I shot at and wounded a tiger. 

 When last seen at about 6 p.m. it was going lame in forequartors, so 

 apparently was hit in foreleg. Next day left camp at 9 a.m., with 38 

 buffaloes, including several old bulls ; at about 12 p.m., having come 5 miles, 

 these were driven in a more or less compact line through some grass jungle 

 where the tiger was last seen. There was no trace of anything in it. On 

 the far side was a stretch of burnt ground perfectly bare, except for a few 

 scattered clumps of bamboo leading to a deep pool of water. The herd 

 was driven over this burnt bit within a few yards of the bamboos, towards 

 the water, into which latter they at once plunged. I was following some 

 ten yards behind the herd, and had given up all hope of finding the tiger 

 just then, when a native said that it was lying behind one of the clumps 

 growing at the base of a steep hill, so .went back andllooked from about 30 

 yards off, but could see nothing. Thinking that the man was either mistaken 

 or that the tiger was dead (the buffaloes having given no sign), I fired one 

 barrel into the clump. The result was the immediate appearance of a very 

 angry and lame tiger rushing towards me — fired second barrel into its mouth 

 and got the brain. In this case the whole herd had passed within five yards 

 of the tiger over open ground without giving any sign of its presence. On 

 examining the body I found that on the first day one bullet had broken a 

 foreleg low down near the wrist joint so to speak, whilst a second had raked 

 the animal from behind nearly the whole length of the body, causing much 

 internal bleeding. 

 (B.) On 21st April, 1894, shot at and wounded a big tigress in the 



Central Provinces. She was accompanied by two well-grown cubs a 



difficult shot through intervening branches of trees and tangle, only loins 

 and hindquarters being visible ; knew that she was wounded, but not badly, 

 somewhere in the hindquarters. Next day collected nearly a hundred 

 buffaloes, including some old bulls and a good many cows with calves. 

 On arriving near the ground, which was about 10 miles from camp, left the 

 buffaloes and went to reconnoitre saw tigress and got difficult shot, as she 



