THE TIGEE 227 



as if asking them not to betray where he was going. He 

 was travelling under the opposite bank to where I was, in 

 the deep shadow of the overhanging trees ; but, when nearly 

 opposite me, he came out into the middle, in the faint 

 yellow light of the just risen sun, and then he looked such 

 a picture of fearful beauty — ^with his velvety step and 

 undulating movements, the firm muscles working through 

 his loose glossy skin, and the cruel yeUow eyes blinking in 

 the sun over a row of ivory teeth, as he licked his lips and 

 whiskers after his night's feed. He passed within about 

 twenty yards of me, making for a small ravine that here 

 joined the river from the hills. I let him get to the mouth 

 of this before I fired ; and on receiving the shot, he bounded 

 forward into its cover — a very difierent picture from the 

 placid creature I had just been looking at, and with a roar 

 that silenced the chattering of every monkey on the trees. 

 I knew he was hit to death, but waited till the shikaris 

 came up before proceeding to see; and we then went 

 rotmd a good way to where a high bank overlooked the 

 ravine in which he had disappeared. Here we cautiously 

 peeped over, and, seeing nothing, came further down 

 towards the river, and within fifty yards of where I had 

 fired at him I saw a sohtary crow sitting in a tree, and 

 cawing down at an indistinct yellow object extended 

 below. It seemed like the tiger, and sitting down I fired 

 another shot at it ; but it never stirred to the thud of the 

 ball, while the crow, after flying up a few feet, perched 

 again and cawed away more lustily than before. We now 

 went down, and found the tiger lying stone dead, shot very 

 near the heart. 



I. think it is the pranks of juvenile tigers, rather than 

 the serious enmity of old ones, that cause such a terror 

 of them to exist among the monkey community. The 

 natives say that the tigress teaches her cubs to stalk and 

 hunt by practising on monkeys and peafowl. The gorgeous 

 plumage of the latter, scattered about in a thousand radiant 

 fragments, often marks the spot where a peacock has thus 

 fallen victim to these ready learners, but the remains of 

 a monkey are seldom or never seen. Indeed, these saga- 

 cious simians rarely venture to come down to the ground 



