328 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XI. 



was lying in some short grass, at a white patch of hair which I took to be 

 that on her face ; bullet took effect somewhere in vicinity of head or neck. 

 The buffaloes were then driven into the cover ; when about 20 yards from 

 where the tigress was supposed to be, she stood up and roared loudly, once. 

 This caused a general stampede of the whole herd, every one of which made 

 off as hard as they could go. The tigress did not move a yard, but lay down 

 again in the same spot, where she was eventually finished off without again 

 employing the buffaloes. The roar was almost her last effort, as when next 

 seen, within half an hour afterwards, she was barely able to stand, and when 

 examined subsequently, it was found that the second bullet had struck her 

 rather low down on one side of the head in line with the ear, and from 

 the haemorrhage of this wound she was gradually succumbing. 



These two instances sufficiently illustrate some of the possibilities which 

 may cccur from time to time. In the first case although the denouement 

 was somewhat unexpected, the employment of buffaloes in the manner 

 described enabled me to explore the ground where the tiger was last 

 seen, and eventually to approach the animal itself without incurring 

 more than what I consider was a fair sporting risk ; that the result 

 was nearly being disastrous was entirely due to my own inexperience 

 and stupidity in firing at a dangerous animal through a clump of bamboos 

 without even being able to see the object ; whilst in my own case this 

 too had its uses, for I am not likely to make the same mistake 

 again. In the second case, the thickness of the cover and nature of the 

 ground made the work of locating the animal almost impossible without 

 the help of buffaloes, unless indeed beaters had been employed in their 

 place ; but to this I am personally strongly opposed. There are men, 

 I believe, who have no compunction in allowing practically unarmed 

 beaters to penetrate jungle more or less dense and endeavour to drive 

 the wounded tiger out towards themselves ; in many cases there may 

 be little real danger, provided the beaters have some experience of the 

 nature of the animal, and keep together in groups of four or five, but to 

 permit them to incur the undoubted risk of being mauled by an animal 

 rendered dangerous, and very probably aggressive by reason of its wound 

 or wounds, is, in my opinion, both cruel and unnecessary. In this 

 connection I can call to mind an official of mature years and considerable 

 experience, who enjoyed an unenviable notoriety for the number of beaters 

 who had been killed or mauled in his service ; at length matters came to such 

 a pass that he resorted to the expedient of filling the hollow points of his 

 bullets with strychnine, and in this manner "inoculated tigers," to use what 

 is, I believe, his own expression. This method may have its advantages 

 from an humanitarian point of view, and may have been the means of 

 preventing a certain number of fatalities, but as to its merits and demerits, 

 from a sporting point of view, I leave it to others to decide. It has always 



