Tiger Shooting in Nepal. 
My great ambition was to shoot a tiger. I 
had been out many times and had seen the wily 
tiger shot, both in a beat and over a kill. I had 
shot a panther and this, of course, only made 
me all the keener to bag still nobler game. So 
when my friends arranged a tiger shoot for 
Nepal during the hot weather, I was delighted. 
For a tiger shoot in Nepal, a great deal of 
what in India is called “bundobast ’ (arrange¬ 
ment) is necessary. First of all a pass to enter 
the Nepalese territory has to be obtained, not 
always an easy matter. Then elephants have to 
be procured and shikaris must be sent on ahead 
to obtain news and to tie up young buffaloes for 
“kills.” Tents, food for the elephants, horses 
and the considerable number of camp followers, 
as well as for the sportsmen, must be taken, as 
no supplies of any sort can be obtained in Nepal. 
Lastly, drinks and ice, for the heat of May is 
intense, and the thirst generated thereby ditto. 
On May '26 we left B. for N., a small station 
close to the Nepal frontier. Here we mounted 
elephants and started on a nine-mile march to 
our camp. At the frontier our pass was care¬ 
fully examined by the local Nepalese governor, 
and then we were allowed to proceed. A long, 
hot, dusty march at length brought 11s to camp 
in a shady grove on the banks of the river. 
Here the news awaiting us was very disappoint¬ 
ing. On the opposite side, of the river two tigers 
had been killing regularly for about a fortnight 
apd had moved away only the day before our 
arrival. In another bit of jungle the shikaris re¬ 
ported that three tigers had killed a tied-up buf¬ 
falo the night before. It was too late to go 
after them that day, and on the following morn¬ 
ing they too cleared out. There was nothing for 
it but patience. We had eight or nine buffaloes 
tied up, but for two days there was no kill. 
Two hot, weary, thirsty days they were; our 
tents were like ovens during the day, but luckily 
cooled down considerably at night. On the third 
day we got news of two tigers in a jungle six 
miles away. They had killed one of our buf¬ 
faloes during the night and as there was water 
and cover near, they were certain to lie up near 
the kill during the heat of the day. 
After breakfast we started with twenty ele¬ 
phants to beat for the tigers. We found that 
the tigers were lying in a strip of jungle which 
ran along the high bank of a broad nullah. 
Across this no tiger would break, as it w r as far 
too open. On the other side of the strip the 
country was also open, so that the tigers were 
in a trap from which escape was practically im¬ 
possible, except past the‘line of machans. I 
never saw a thing, but heard two shots before 
the line of elephants came up. First a tigress ap¬ 
peared. She slipped noiselessly past my machan 
without my seeing her (a large tree in front of 
my machan impeding my view) and went on to¬ 
ward Z., who dropped her dead with a lucky 
shot in the neck. A few minutes later a young 
tiger walked out exactly opposite Z.’s machan, 
giving him an easy shot, which rolled the beast 
over. It was tame work for the rest of us, but 
two tigers for our first day was good enough, 
and after photographing the beasts we returned 
to camp. 
On the following morning a shikari came into 
camp with the news that a large tiger had killed 
one of our tied-up buffaloes, so we started off 
after breakfast. The heat was intense and the 
seven-mile march on elephants was weary work. 
On nearing the scene of the kill we found two 
men whom the shikari had left on watch and 
who told us that they had twice heard the tiger 
roar, probably to warn off the vultures which 
had collected on the trees near the carcass. We 
left the elephants that were to form the line 
about half a mile from the kill and went on our 
howdah elephants with the shikaris to take up 
our positions. It was marvelous how quietly 
these enormous creatures crept through the jun¬ 
gle, and quiet w r as absolutely essential, as the 
least noise might have scared away the tiger. 
We found the tiger had killed in a very deep, 
tortuous nullah, out of which ran here and there 
little side nullahs which for the most part ended 
blindly. We were placed along the high bank 
of the main nullah, I in the center and X about 
forty or fifty yards on my left. Z. had pre¬ 
viously left us. Immediately opposite the point 
where I was posted, a blind side nullah sloped 
down into the main nullah and in this lay the 
half-eaten" kill. 
The shikaris having posted us went back to 
bring up the elephants for the beat. They were 
hardly out of sight when I heard monkeys in 
front give their cry of fear. I then saw them 
running up and down the trees, evidently in 
great alarm. I knew at once that the tiger must 
have been roused by our movements land was on 
the move and that the monkeys saw him. For 
a minute or two they kept up their chattering, 
and I was beginning to wonder if the tiger had 
managed to sneak off unnoticed up one of the 
side nullahs, when suddenly right in front of 
me, about forty yards off, out walked a mag¬ 
nificent tiger. He had crept noiselessly out of 
the main nullah and up the bank of the side 
nullah where he stood for a second, his atten¬ 
tion attracted no doubt by some movement on 
the part of the elephant. Aiming behind the 
shoulder, I fired, and the tiger dropped into the 
nullah out of sight. I then moved my elephant 
a little to the right and nearer the edge of the 
main nullah. 
For seven or eight minutes I heard and saw 
nothing and during all this time I was tortured 
with fear lest I should have missed and the tiger 
had got away, for he had made not a sound 
after my shot. Then suddenly there came “Bang! 
bang!” from a .577, followed immediately by a 
cry from my mahout that the tiger was coming 
up the nullah again toward me, and in another 
moment his huge head and shoulders appeared 
above the edge of ’the bank six yards off. I 
knew if I let the brute get up the bank he would 
almost certainly charge the elephant, as we were 
right in his path. I therefore fired at his head 
and he fell back into the nullah with a growl. 
Cautiously approaching the edge I looked down, 
but could see nothing but a pool of blood. I 
knew at any rate my last shot had taken effect, 
but there was no sign of the tiger. Some five 
minutes elapsed—the line of elephants had by 
this time appeared on the opposite side of the 
nullah—when I heard a rustling of leaves in a 
side nullah to my right which intervened be¬ 
tween Z. and me. The next moment from out 
the undergrowth there dashed the tiger. He gal¬ 
loped across a fairly open bit of ground, making 
for another large nullah behind us. In despera¬ 
tion I took a hurried aim and fired, when to my 
delight the brute stumbled, picked himself up 
again, went a few yards and then rolled over. 
He was a splendid specimen, enormously heavily 
built and measured nine feet three inches. 
My first shot had hit him behind the right 
shoulder rather far back and had evidently pene¬ 
trated the lungs. My second shot entered the 
mouth, smashing the right canine tooth and the 
palate. My third, fired as the animal was gal¬ 
loping, got him between the shoulders. 
My delight and pride can better be imagined 
than described, but my pride was destined to 
have a fall. On the very next day we beat the 
same bit of jungle in which Z. had shot the two 
tigers on the first day. This time I was placed 
in the machan and Z. left, as it was considered 
the least likely one, X. having the next best 
machan. However, the luck stuck to me and 
soon after the beat began, two tigers galloped 
past my tree, and this time, alas, I missed. How¬ 
ever, in a second beat Z. got one of them, a 
three-quarter grown cub. The other got away. 
That evening X. shot a fine panther over a kill. 
The next day we beat another bit of jungle for 
a tiger which had killed one of our buffaloes, 
but owing to the difficult nature of the ground 
we could not locate him. The same evening X. 
sat up over the kill, but had very bad luck. A 
shikari who was with him saw the tiger com¬ 
ing up from behind and in his eagerness to point 
it out, he moved and the tiger was off like a 
flash. W. R. Gilbert. 
Memories of the Passenger Pigeon. 
Rochester, N. Y., April 9. —Editor Forest and 
Stream: I am interested in the inquiries of re¬ 
cent date regarding wild pigeons. A friend of 
mine, A. B. Lamberton, of Rochester, N. Y., is 
making a long voyage, hoping to discover pas¬ 
senger pigeons. The fear .is expressed on every 
side that this bird, once so common in this coun¬ 
try, is now extinct. 
In 1852 near Andover, N. Y., there was a large 
forest in which wild pigeons nested. I was a 
boy then and knew no better than to go out into 
the woods and catch the young birds. With my 
axe I would jar a tree of moderate size. This 
jarring would disturb the nestlings so that they 
would tumble out of their nests and fall easy 
victims. In this way I filled a market basket 
with squabs in an hour. The larger trees in 
which the birds were nesting would not be jarred 
sufficiently to dislo’dge the birds. These larger 
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