Evening star., 1925-01-11

Col. Fsunthorpe. crack shot and
celebrated hunter. captain of the
British rifle team for moving
targets at the 1924 Olympic games,
has barely missed death time and
again from the wild beasts of the
Indian jungles. Last week, in the
first article of this series, Col.
Faunthorpe told how a leopard's
spring brought the animal, with
outstretched claws and glistening
teeth, directly in the air above him.
and he managed to- save himself by
a lightning shot from the hip.
He also recount eH his experience
In spearing IeopaUiS from horse
back, regarded by hunters as the
most dangerous sport in the world.
For "A leopard. ordinarily a sneak
ing animal. viii. WHEN cornered or
wounded. fight to u finish, fire.
ouently leaping to horses back.
where the rider has no chance of
defending himself.
Hunting leopards, Col. Faunthorpe
wrote. is exceedingly dangerous
because of the animals ability to
render himself invisible in any
Kind of cover, from which he
pounces upon u person unawares.
BY Lieut. Col. ]. G. Faunthorpe- C. b. E.,
4. n. c.
~ "A
M include the tiger, the leopard
and the wolf; also Que species
A Of alligator, the snub- noSed
kind or mugger, so well de-
scribed III one of Kipling's stories
OF these the tiger has the greatest
reputation as a devourer of human
beings. and justly so, though it is
probable that many of the crimes
charged against him actually are
committed by the leonard.
In the part OF India which / know
best. namely the forests OF north
Oudh and those living at the base of
the Himalayas and in the Nepal Tarai,
man-eating tigers are very rare-in
fact. in that tract of country L have
never come across one which was a
habitual man-eater. Further south
in the more open forests of the cen
trail provinces. man-eaters are OF
much more frequent occurrence
For this, | think, there are several
reasons: one is that in the northern
jungIes there is, in many plaoes. an
ample supply of game in the form of
pig and deer and where the game has
been shot out there are everywhere
numbers OF cattle. The big grass
plains In the jungles in the Tarai
country, bo1h in British territory and
Nepal, are famous grazing grounds
10 which many thousands of catt he
are sent for grazing from the more
congested districts further south. In
the central provinces, / believe,
owing to the nature of the country,
a tiger has greater difficulty in catch
ing game, and where game is scarce
there are fewer cattle and what cattle
there are are more carefully looked
after by their owners.
But l think there is another reason.
In the northern forests, owing to the
tigers liVe-high grass, canebrakes
etc.-all beating for tigers has to be
done with elephants. In the jungles
further south, in the central pro-
vi1Nces. etc, where the forests are
rnucS more open and the enormously
dense grass, reeds and canebrake of
the n,Qrth do not exist, the usual
method of shooting tigers is to drive
them up to the guns with a line of
men.
A tiger when wounded, or often
whom Suspicious tnougn unwounoed,
WIFI frequently break pack through
the beaters, S Ometimes knocking over
one or two of them en- route. 1 be-
ireve that they have in this part of
the country less instructive fear of
mankind than tn ey have in the north,
and when short OF food are, therefore,
more likely to take to killing human
beings.
X x Y x
TN any case. there is no doubt that
l. it IS comparativ ally common for
a tiger, particularly a tigress with
cubs to become a man -eater In these
southern jungles. A Sew years ago
] was told by Mr.. Dunbar Brander OF
the Central Provinces tOrest Service,
a very well known tiger hunter. that
there were then in the central prov
.nces more than 20 proclaimed man
eating tigers, with large rewards on
. their heads. Special Efforts are, of
course. made both by the Villagers and
by officials and sportsmen OF the 10
Cality to destroy a man eating tiger
and this makes the man-eater un-
usually cunning.
Frequently the beast Will not re-
turn to a kill, having learned by ex-
perience that there is likely to be
some one with a gun sitting up in a
tree waiting for him, and sometimes
after killing in one place he viii ac-
tuaIIy shift to some other locality,
many miles away. IF the man eater
is a tigress with cubs, the cubs, of
course, become accustomed to human
flesh, and when they grow up carry
en- the habits of their mother