3'JO JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HLSTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XIV. 



cutting mor3 of the bushes next clay. During the night a tiger always movea 

 round the enclosure and makes many a desperate charge at the net, which is 

 repelled by the spearmen who are on guard by their watch fires at close 

 intervals. On the night after this unsuccessful attempt at moving him, 

 the tiger, an exceptionally large one, evidently gauged the situation and knew 

 that a supremo effort alone would save him. Accordingly, about 5 a.m., when 

 the shikaris, tired with the work of the previous day had dropped off asleep 

 and tlie fires had burnt low, the tiger crept up to the net and jumped clean 

 over it, pitching right on the top of two of the watchers. When we arrived 

 early in the morning, the truth of the story was proved by the hairs on the 

 top of the forked stick where the beast's stomach grazed the net, by the marks 

 where he pitched, and by the two villagers, both of whom were considerably 

 mauled. The net at the spot was nine feet high and sloping inwards, while the 

 take-off was slightly up-hill and out of thick lantana bushes, so that the leap 

 was a fine one, but the fact that it should have been attempted at all, is still 

 more remarkable, for all the natives bear out Sanderson in his statement that 

 tigers never attempt to jump over the nets, and this is the only instance of 

 such an escape known of in Mysore. 



On the last occasion that I was out, the hunt was got up to catch a man- 

 eater which iiad inspired such terror in the neighbouring villages, that quarry- 

 ing there for the new Palace Buildings in Mysore was Btojjped, the toddy 

 drawers petitioned that they were afraid to work, carts would not pass 

 through, and the annual festival at the local temple was abandoned. As the 

 doings of Veritable man-eaters are always a subject of interest I will detail 

 the two cases where men were killed, about which I obtained the official reports. 

 Other subsei|ucnt cases were mentioned, but not verified by me. 



(1). On ]()th November last two villagers, Ranga and Subba Setty, went 

 into the jungle in the morning to collect roots, lianga stood preparing snuff, 

 and Subba Setty was cutting creepers close by, when Ranga saw the tiger 

 coming towards him and fled. The tiger pounced upon Ranga and dragged 

 him into the bushes, where the Police, to whom the matter was reported, 

 found a few bones and the clothes of the deceased two days later. 



(2). On 2'2nd November last, one Kare Gowda took his bullocks to water 

 at a pond in the jungle. His father-in-law soon after saw the bullocks 

 dashing back to the village in alarm and went to look for Kare Gowda, but 

 not finding him at the pond, returned to the village and took out a party to 

 search. Bits of his clothes, blood, the signs of a struggle and (he foot-prints 

 of a tiger wore found, and throe days later the Police came on a few bones fur- 

 ther on in the jungle. Tales wore told me of the tiger having attacked par- 

 ties beariijg corpses to the burning ground and carrying off the corpse, and the 

 acquisition of such a curious taste, may perhaps be explained by the follow- 

 ing passage in a letter from the Amildar : — 



" It is a custom among the villagers here not to burn or bury the dead 

 bodies of pregnant females, but to expose them in the neighbouring jungles to 



