Evening star., 1925-01-11

really big buffalo is an animal which
a tiger, as 4 rule, will hesitate to at
tack, but this tiger seemed to prefer
them to anything else. He would
make one meal off a buffalo and then
move on to another part of the for
est. No one could find out where
| this tiger lived.
| One day | was exploring along a
ravine, which ran through the forest,
on a pad elephant. Suddenly I heard in
| the distance the unmistakable sound
of an angry bear screaming with rage.
/ The noise came nearer and | saw an
enormous tiger cantering down the bed
| of the ravine, pursued by bear emit
| ting harsh sounds. There were some
pools of water in the bed of the ravine
and when the tiger got opposite to
where 1 was he lay down in one of these
pools, while the bear stood screaming at
| him on the bank.
| From where / was, the bank concealed
| the tiger as he lay in the water, so ]
moved quietly forward. Before l could
see him, he got up and galloped straight
away and / had two shots at him with
a 400 bore Cordite rifle. The bear paid
no attention to me and continued stand
ing screaming on the bank. / then shot
the bear, which was a small female.
| There was no sign of blood from the
tiger, but after some trouble we dis
covered his tracks going across a sandy
tpath some distance away, and following
tup. in that direction again found them
crossing the bed OF small stream, on
the opposite side of which was very
| heavy but quite small patch of heavy
green bushes. After investigating the
lie of the ground, very quietly on foot,
| / got up a tree at one end of the bushes
and had the mahout drive the elephant
| through them in my direction from the
| other end.
| AS soon as the elephant entered the
| bushes, there was a loud roar and the
| tiger charged and drove the elephant
away. 1t was evident from this behavior
that the tiger was wounded, so I got on
| the elephant and entered the bushes
| The tiger again charged. This time the
| mahout, who had been warned what
would happen to him II be let the ele-
phant run away with him a second time,
held her steady, and had no difficulty
| in knocking the tiger over at short
range when he charged
| The reason that we could find no
blood was that the tiger was so fat that
the hole made by the bullet, which had
originally hit him too far back and rak-
| ing forward, had been closed by the
heavy layer of fat, which a heavy tiger
carries along and all round his stomach.
The incident was interesting as show
| ing:
1. The savagery of the sloth bear;
2. The good temper Of the tiger, which
could easily have killed the bear, which
| was an unusually small one;
! 3. The determined manner in which
| this inoffensive tiger when wounded
charged an elephant as soon as it came
near him.
r urtc aooo ,,,,,ob v,,,11Iad nv 4ha he =
l. havior of a large male tiger, which
made a most vicious charge before be-
| ing fired at and clawed an elephant
| rather badly on the head.
| A pair Of tigers was marked down one
day in a strip of heavy grass in the
Swamp Deer Preserve, owned by my old
friend RAM of Khairigarh, some OF
whose beautiful deer had been killed by
| the beasts. I shot the tiger, but the
tigress got away unseen. All that night
and the next night the tigress wandered
calling in this way makes peculiar
moaning sound, which is quite unmis-
| taxable.
| On the third day, early in the morn
| ing, one of the trackers came in with
| the news that he had heard the tig-
ress calling in another strip of heavy
grass, only about half a mile from
] camp, across a small river. Shortly
| afterwards another man arrived with
the news that another tiger was call
/ ing in n piece Of heavy tree and bush
| jungle on the river bank, on the same
side as the camp.
| The elephants were got ready and
| started at once after the tigress
across the river. One of the trackers
| remained behind in a tree near the
| grass, and when I arrived he reported
| that while he was sitting in the tres
| q large male tiger had come from the
direction of the river and entered the
grass in which the tigress was. Beat.
ing up the grass, got a glimpse ot
the tigress and knocked her over, anc
we discovered the male tiger, but he
got away unf1red at into another striI
| of grass which ran parallel with the
| first.
| AS he had been disturbed, I went
well forward on one elephant and left
| the other elephants to beat up the
/ grass in my direction. When they
had gone about half way the tiger
| charged in most determined manner
and clawed one elephant considerably
about the head and ears. He then
| galloped out of the grass, through
| some shallow water, and was shot.
| On examination / found that he was
suffering from a severe bite in the
hind leg. This was perfectly fresh
and obviously inflicted by the tigress
| What had happened undoubtedly was
| that this tiger had heard the widowed
| tigress calling to her lost husband
and had gone to join her and had beer
repulsed.
| x X X
| A TAME elephant will almost in
= variably show signs of alarm or
coming on the fresh trail of a tiger
An elephant has poor sight and his
hearing Is hy no means as acute q