252 
A NATURALIST ON THE PROWL. 
panther to show his base visage and taunting him about 
certain scandals affecting the characters of his mother and 
aunts. Suddenly the word bawg (tiger or panther) rang 
out in the shrill tone of Banawat Beg and silenced every- 
one, and I could hear a heavy animal coming down at a 
brisk trot. The men with the kettles and crackers dropped 
their apparatus and went up the nearest trees like squirrels. 
Fortunately one man tried to take his kettle up with him, 
but it slipped from his grasp and fell upon a large stone 
just in front of the beast, causing him to double back. 
The beaters now began to advance again, and soon I 
descried the spotted form of a large panther slinking under 
the bush towards H. He was well posted over a piece of 
open ground, across which the beast would have to pass. 
It did so at a gentle trot, and he fired both barrels, but 
without effect. Then it started off at full speed in my 
direction. The bushes were so dense that I could not get 
a glimpse of it, but the noise it made among the fallen leaves 
let me guess its course exactly, and glancing ahead, I marked 
a small opening, not more than three inches wide, among 
the leaves of a thick corrinda bush, behind which I felt sure 
it would pass. I was right. For a moment its body dark- 
ened the hole, and I fired. A scuffle in the grass told that 
