CONSERVATORS’ WORK 135 
and bounded high in the air, striking in his fall 
a stout sapling some six feet. from the ground, and 
snapping it off as he fell with it. But when we 
reached camp, famished and dripping, our first care 
was to collect and destroy every cartridge that was 
not above suspicion, lest after two warnings further 
neglect should end in mishap. 
From Sohelwa, too, and from the next camp at 
Bachkahi, we made interesting Nature studies of 
the forest panther, and learnt much of the romance 
of his daily life. The panther, surely, is a beast 
endowed with most superior cunning and fore- 
thought, so that he seems sometimes to be capable 
of those reasoning qualities that we claim as exclu- 
sively our own. He is a clean feeder, and has no 
taste for hair; so in eating he folds back the skin 
by degrees till it lies like an empty glove. He circum- 
vents the vulture who are watching for his departure 
by placing his kill high in the branches of a tree, 
where there is no space for their greedy tearing and 
rending ; and if he finishes his meal before dawn 
appears, he will cover it up with dead leaves, so that 
it may not be observed by those who pass. His 
approach is always silent and stealthy ; he displays 
infinite patience, and his attention is not fixed on 
the ground below, but passes to the trees above. 
He is a consummate master in still hunting; none 
can hide as he, and none are so quick to recognize a 
chance for flight or for onslaught. Finally, with 
him there is no indecision as to the course to adopt, 
which in the case of the tiger so often puts that 
animal at a disadvantage ; so that when the hunter 
at last stands over the seven foot of spotted hide, 
