Thirteen years among the wild beasts of India : their haunts and habits from personal observations, with an account of the modes and capturing and taming elephants . o the bed as soon as I was asleep, itnever showed any resentment. I sold a pair of cubs eight months old, asI was ordered to Bengal and could not keep them, for £100. Having now given some notes on the nature and habits of the tiger, Ishall endeavour to describe the usual methods of hunting him. TIGER-HUNTING. The pursuit of the tiger with a line of elephants is perhaps the mostcommon method, the sportsman either shooting from the
Thirteen years among the wild beasts of India : their haunts and habits from personal observations, with an account of the modes and capturing and taming elephants . o the bed as soon as I was asleep, itnever showed any resentment. I sold a pair of cubs eight months old, asI was ordered to Bengal and could not keep them, for £100. Having now given some notes on the nature and habits of the tiger, Ishall endeavour to describe the usual methods of hunting him. TIGER-HUNTING. The pursuit of the tiger with a line of elephants is perhaps the mostcommon method, the sportsman either shooting from the howdah, or from apost selected ahead, towards which the tiger is driven. This plan is chieflyadopted in Bengal in places where the grass is long, and where men on footwould be useless. Beaters are employed instead of elephants in other parts of India, wherethe jungle admits of men getting through in line, and is perhaps too thornyor close at about the height of the howdah for shooting from an elephant. In some parts of India, particularly in Mysore, tigers are surroundedwith nets and shot from outside, or from the backs of elephants, or even onfoot, Io h- h-Io TIGER-DRIVING. 283 Watching for their return to a kill or at pouls where they are knownto drink, is the method chiefly practised by native shikaries. Poison, spring-guns, pitfalls, and traps are also brought into play, gen-erally where a man-eater is concerned. I have had very little experience of beating in line with a large numberof elephants; this method is hardly applicable to Southern India, wherethere are few savannahs of long grass as in Bengal, and where elephantsare not so easily obtained. In shooting either with elephants or beaters, it is essential that thesportsman or some of his men should know the ground well, and the tigersusual paths to and from the cover to be driven, and the adjacent covers. Atiger scarcely ever moves through very thick cover, preferring paths and com-paratively open passages
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookidthir, booksubjectelephants
