136 BIG-GAME SHOOTING IN UPPER BURMA 



on mto the jungle as leisurely as he had arrived. 

 I went to the spot pointed out by the mahout, 

 and there, sure enough, were the pugs of a 

 huge tiger. This was probably my friend of the 

 early morning; but whether he was the man- 

 eater or not I had no means of ascertaining. I 

 followed at once on the elephant, but saw nothing 

 of the tiger ; so returned to camp, after bagging 

 a sambur stag. 



Leopards are as much a nuisance in Burma 

 as they are in India. They are always prowling 

 round villages, and carrying off dogs and cattle. 

 I once had a favourite fox terrier carried off by 

 a leopard, almost at my feet as I sat at dinner 

 in a zayat. The jungles in Burma are so thick, 

 and so vast, that driving for tiger or leopard, even 

 if you could get the Burman to beat for them, 

 would be useless. It occasionally happens, how- 

 ever, that when beating for sambur and barking 

 deer, a tiger or panther unexpectedly presents 

 himself. The few tigers killed in Burma are 

 usually got by sitting over kills. Burmans are 

 clever at making traps for leopards, and account 

 for a good many in this way. The clouded 

 panther is occasionally killed in the denser 

 forests. I saw the skin of one shot by a Sepoy 

 at a remote post on the Upper Chindwin. The 

 colouring was beautiful — the black rosettes show- 

 ing distinctly on the chocolate-coloured back- 

 ground. 



