98 FOREST LIFE AND SPORT IN INDIA 
Putting aside the method of shooting tigers by 
driving them by coolies or by elephants to the 
sportsman who is seated in a tree or in a “ howdah ” 
—a method very expensive, and, even at any outlay 
of money, often impossible by reason of the con- 
figuration of the ground or the height of the grass 
---the question remains, What means must be em- 
ployed to come to close quarters with the quarry ? 
First, it is evident that, if you cannot go to the tiger, 
the only alternative is that he should be persuaded 
to come to you; and if the habits of the animal 
are familiar, there is some chance of arranging a 
meeting. 
The tiger is apparently quite content if he can 
secure a sizeable animal about once a week; but to 
do this he has to range a considerable area of country, 
unless, indeed, he is one of those uninteresting pen- 
sioners on the cattle of his neighbours who has lost 
all the characteristics of his species save that of 
gluttony. Writing of the tiger who feeds on wild 
animals, we will imagine that the pangs of hunger 
have induced him to travel. He has the period 
between afternoon and early morning to wander— 
say sixteen or seventeen hours—and in this time 
can cover many miles even at the slowest pace. He 
will proceed with the greatest caution, for, once his 
presence is known in the forest, all its inhabitants 
are on the alert and his difficulties are enormously 
increased. We will suppose that he has killed a 
deer or a pig, surprised out of the sense of security 
induced by the absence of any of the carnivora for 
the last few days; that he has dragged it away to 
deep cover ; and that he is lying near it, feeling at 
