5 12 JOURNAL, BOMBA Y NA TURA L HISTOR Y SOCIETY, Vol. XI. 



Altogether, it seemed as hopeless a prospect as could be imagined. All the 

 information I had got about him in the course of several weeks was that he 

 sometimes came into the village at night. Where he had his home could not 

 be found. My men scoured the country for miles round, but found nothing. 

 He would not touch a tied-up buffalo— even a very small one. No trace of 

 him could be found. Suddenly he turned up— seemingly from nowhere— and 

 the village became awake. He had come into a house the night before, killed 

 a calf and was carrying it out, when the people sitting there shouted at him 

 and frightened him. He dropped it outside and bolted. 



When the old headman reported this next morning, the orders he got were : 

 " Leave it there. Sit quiet to-night — let him come and take it away — 

 to-morrow morning look where he has put it, and come and tell me early. I 

 getting panther, you getting rupees." So he went away and obeyed orders. 

 He was old and decrepit, but he was the best man in his village, and next 

 morning he reported. The panther had come and taken the calf away — eaten 

 most of it, and stuck the rest 12 feet up a big tree. I sent my shikari at 

 once with coolies, to see the place, and put up a machan at once if suitable, 

 or otherwise to arrange. Then I rested, and waited. No news came. At 

 last I sent messengers ; then started myself. The machan was only being 

 finished as the sun was setting. What the explanation might be, if any, I don't 

 know. It seemed almost useless to sit up at that hour of the evening — most 

 likely the panther had come and gone already. However, there was nothing 

 else to do, and I took my place. The moon was two days' old and not visible, 

 and no light except from the stars. To make matters worse the sky was slightly 

 clouded. I had an 8-bore with buckshot cartridges, and a fresh coat of 

 luminous paint on the big foresight, and there were no more preparations I 

 could make. I had a live goat tethered near the remains of the last. At 10 

 o'elock the panther came and killed the live goat. I fired at where I thought 

 he was— and missed — two minutes later I heard him eating again. After, 

 one miss it seemed useless to fire again — but I took a very careful aim at the 

 nearest landmark, with an allowance — waited till I heard him again, and 

 pulled. At daybreak, I saw him for the first time, lying dead. The first shot 

 had missed him clear, and the second had hit him fair, three pellets being in 

 his heart. He was identified by his deformed paw, which had only one claw 

 left, the forearm being three inches shorter than the other. It looked as if 

 he had been caught in a trap, or had a blow from something heavy when a 

 cub. The deformed forearm was much thicker than the other — as if the 

 muscles had run to thickness instead of length. 



• This deformity accounted for his reluctance to attack animals of any 

 Size, and for his falling over, as the boy reported, when he killed the 

 •cow. The wonder was that he could climb as he did carrying so much 

 meat. The marks on the tree showed that he slipped a good deal on the 

 way up. 



