68 FOREST LIFE AND SPORT IN INDIA 
villagers, a wide circle in the forest, and. advanced 
towards the spot where the corpse was supposed to 
be lying, and soon in the centre of this ring of rifles 
and bayonets the tigress leapt on to a rock to deter- 
mine her line of retreat. She fell with her back 
broken by a lucky shot fired by the son of the 
“havildar,” a lad of about fifteen years old, and the 
little Gurkhas, closing in, soon despatched her. They 
brought down a tigress of under eight feet long in 
the prime of life, and vouched for her identity by 
some poor bones taken from her stomach; but I only 
looked at the pad of the right fore-paw, and paid the 
reward with a thankful heart. 
Rid of this pest, there was more zest for the work 
of the forest, and more delight in roaming in its 
| solitudes. I was interested in studying the habits 
and disposition of the wild-elephants—how during 
the winter the chief food was found in the bamboo- 
forests, and, when the foliage fell, how the herds 
resorted to the swamps or shady ravines where 
green grass was still to be had; how the shelter and 
shade of the forest was sought by day, and how 
darkness heralded the luxuries of bathing and 
drinking. 
The wild-elephant when in a herd is perhaps the 
noisiest of the jungle animals, for the reason, prob- 
ably, that he has no fear of other beasts and little of 
man; andsoit is that, when the mothers cease from 
trumpeting and gurgling, and the calves from squeal- 
ing and squeaking, there is yet the constant sound 
of the breaking of bamboos or of the overturning of 
the clumps in order that the youngsters may reach 
the leaves. The unsafest way to approach a herd is 
