MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 



387 



soon as he saw us he began to move away and entered the jungle, never 

 letting us get nearer than some three hundred yards and I did not want to 

 disturb him further with a long shot of which I could not make certain." 

 The buffalo returned to his nocturnal haunts the next evenin':^ but was' left 



undisturbed. The following day, the 20th, His Highness describes as a red- 



letter day, his diary for the period runs as follows : — 



At last I have shot my first buffalo. Khuber came of Buffalo at 7 a.m. 

 Left camp about 7-30. Got to place about 8-45 a.m. A machan was tied 

 up just a little inside the plain beyond the jungle on a small tree on which 

 Hiru and I, with Asu Singh loading for me, got up. Staff put up on two 

 machans to our right front and right rear in case of buffalo escaping wound- 

 ed. Saw Arna buffalo a little to the north of where we saw him on the 18th. 

 The only way to get a decent shot, as he wouldn't allow elephants near 

 him, was to try some subterfuge. Hence machans and our attempting 

 to get him to follow the tame buffalo herd past our tree. The plan succeed 

 ed and he followed some twenty yards behind the \Tllage buffaloes passing 

 my machan about 70 yards off. Although the shooting itself was com- 

 paratively tame work, t confess I felt quite excited when the wild bull- 

 buffalo began moving towards us ! Would he come on, or. seemg us, move 

 away without giving us a shot ? But all went well and my rifle s^wke 

 ■out three times, the first bullet from my -465 Cordite gomg home well and 

 true, crashing into his right shoulder, and the mighty beast came down 

 on his knees and head. The second bullet agam got him in the shoulder 

 while he was plunging about on the same spot (though mortally wounded) 

 and down he went. But as he was still moving about a Uttle I finished 

 him off with a thu-d bullet in the top of the neck with the -450 Cordite. 

 On cutting up his head we found that the old buff had a 12 bore bullet 

 buried just below the skin in the neck, and we ascertained that a Nepaleso 

 •officer had tried to shoot it last year as it was giving much trouble to the 

 villagers. This accounts for his not letting the elephants approach Inra. 



