•396 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXVIL 



The village hero spent a montli in hospital, and was lucky to escape with his 

 life. 



Caged panthers have been known to escape in Kathiawar, and at least one 

 ■Chief has " put down " tame panthers to stock his jungles, this probably 

 accounts for the variation in colouring, etc., occasionally met with as the 

 purchased animals may be African, Malay or Bengal. 



Two years ago one of these "bag" panthers came over our frontier and started 

 man eating. After wandering about 100 miles across country, he finally settled 

 -down in open grass country, attacking the women working in the neighbouring 

 .fields and the children tending cattle in the grass. His attacks were always 

 made in broad day-light and after a few deaths the country became panic- 

 stricken. All field-work ceased, and moving outside the villages at any time 

 became a night-mare. 



I went out after him in mid-April and put WaU Mahomed (the finest tracker 

 in the Gir) on to his trail. The first day he eluded the trackers, but the second 

 day they found him asleep under a small bush. Khubber was brought to me 

 about half past five in the evening, no time was to be lost as our quarry waa 

 8 miles away over stony hills and we had to cross several big rivers with rocky 

 beds full of boulders. Wah Mahomed carried a goat across his saddle and I car- 

 ried a heavy rifie ; a sharp gallop brought us to the spot just as the sun was dip- 

 ping on the horizon. We tied up the unfortunate goat and sank behind a small 

 bush. Within two minutes the panther appeared on a small hillock, and after 

 satisfying himself that the coast was clear, rushed in and killed the goat. I 

 killed the panther, and found him a full grown male of the Bengal type, 3 to 4 

 years old, 6 feet 10 inches in length, not heavily built, skull 9" by 6|". The hair 

 on his face and sides was rubbed off by the bars of his cage though he had been 

 ■free for nearly a year. In this short time he had killed 14 poor villagers. 



There is one man-eating panther in the Gir forest, I believe it is a female — pro- 

 bably with cubs. She kiUs spasmodically ; for four successive years she has 

 killed and eaten one child in each monsoon. The place is very difficult to reach 

 in the rains and with the fever, mosquitoes and other biting flies the discomforts 

 are too great to permit of camping in the forest at this season. I ventured out 

 once, was eaten ahve by mosquitoes, and had no luck, chiefly owing to too much 

 ■bundobast made by an over-zealous police inspector. 



The Rabaris or buffalo herdsmen of the Gir live in the most primitive shel- 

 ters at all times, a ring of thorns with a few upright sticks covered with coarse 

 grass form their only habitation, this structure is abandoned when the grazing 

 near by is consumed, the graziers then seek pastures new and form a new 

 hamlet. 



The lions and panthers of the Gir move from their lairs shortly before sunset 

 and make straight for the nearest Rabaris' hamlet, if they find no victim, they 

 move on to the next settlement, if they fail to find a straggler from the byres 

 they will sit patiently outside. As the cattle are driven out to pasture long before 

 daybreak killing is then an easy matter. The four little girls mentioned 

 above were carried off about dusk or dawn when visiting the edge of their camp, 

 in each case the only trace left was a bare skull. 



I have seen tiger, panther, and Indian lion approaching their kills dozens 

 -of times, and have watched many panthers kill goats tied up as bait. Some 

 famous artists have painted pictures of these big cats on the prowl, with ears 

 well laid back, head a few inches from the ground, body stretched to its greatest 

 length and every muscle tense and strained. As far as my experience goes this 

 is entirely wrong. They walk along quite naturally to within a few yards of 

 their victim — stopping occasionally to look all round for the goat-herd — then 

 settle themselves down ventre-a4erre with the hind legs well doubled up under- 

 .neath, and then come with a terrific rush on the poor goat who has probably 

 'Watched the whole performance. The attack is always made in silence, and is 



