Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-10-12

seen, and presently we espied him under a
bush, still very active, growing snarling and
obviously awaiting q chance to charge. Two
quick shots finished him, and we carried him
home to camp in triumph. It subsequently
transpired that the lone shikari, In the
deceptive early morning light, had mistaken
those two panthers for tigers.
Next morning brought further good news,
which was also more authentic. Three very
experienced shikaris had seen q tiger returning
from his kill" and had marked him down
carefully in q certain patch Of very thick
jungle The same arrangements as before
were made. and my host and myself occupied
howdahs on the same two elephants. had
two rifles. My host was armed with double
1854
The beat commenced silently, as on the
previous day, but at o signal given by the
head shikari, the whole line broke into q
pandomonium Of shouts and yells rattles, gongs
and whistles, which must have frightened
every jungle creature for miles round. This
went on for about five minutes; then, at
another signal, there was dead silence once
more.
The next thing that happened was that I
heard terrific below, which I thought at
first came from my elephant. Then that
wonderful beast gave lurch and I saw that
a very fine tiger had charged my elephant,
but had not actually come to grips with him.
steering off into the thickets at the last
moment.
Catching glimpse of him through thin
bush, fired the right barrel Of my 400 at
his shoulder, hitting him, as we discovered
afterward, two inches low. The tiger whipped
round in q flash and leapt back into the
jungle, but not before I had given him the
left barrel of my rifle and my host had fired
both barrels Of his 1854.
The Indian gentleman who was with me IN
my howdah quickly handed me my other rifle
and before Stripes" disappeared just had
time to give him one shot from the 800 through
his backbone. That made five shots from
powerful rifles, all of which had hit him in
what should have been fatel places; but the
last we saw of him he was bounding swiftly
back into the Jungle
This meant that he must now be walked up
with the elephants. They were rapidly mustered
and proceeded to force their way through al
most impenetrable forest to where we thought
we should find our quarry. We advanced with
caution, for a wounded tiger will charge right
home, leap onto the elephant and even into the
howdah. But this time there was no charge.
We found the tiger as dead as q doornan lying
in little clump of bamboos. Yet he had run
so yards with five heavy bullets in him before
falling
Sitting up" for q tiger or panther is in
variably done at night. II q tiger has killed
a bullock, he win eat part that night and re-
turn the following evening to complete the
meal. A rough platform or machan, Is con-
structed In the nearest tree, and the shot Il
obtained when the animal comes back for its
meal. In known hauntS, it Is often possible to
get q shot by tying up bullock or goat and
waiting for the beast of prey to stalk the
tethered decoy, shooting it either when it Is
approaching or after it has killed and is making
its meal
Some Of the machans are permanent, and are
built of stones In the form Of o tower, but the
most up-to-date system is to have q strong
steel wire cage on the ground covered with
bushes, with light suspended over the tethered