Tiger Shooting in India.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 915, 13 September 1889, Page 9

Tiger Shooting in India.

Statistics procured by the Indian Government show that tigers every year canse the death of nearly one thousand human beings, and destroy about twenty thousand cattle.

The man eating tiger, whose victim is mors frequently a woman or a child, is a beast of peculiar habits ; especially an aged tiger, no longer able to catch the deer or antelope, and, perhaps wffh his teeth half worn out, declining conflict with the boar or the buffalo. He therefore lies in wait amid the long grass by the path where girls and old women return from drawing water at the stream or tank, or are passing from one hamlet to another ; and if the last of them happen to lag behind 'alone, stopping to adjust her dress, or stoopiDg t,o pick a thorn out of her foot, the tiger leaps forth, seizes her, and carries her off, to feast on her mangled flesh. It is seldom that this sneaking and really cowardly savage beast will attack a man who carries anything like a weapon, unless the man ..has provoked the combat. Tigerhunting, encouraged by a handsome Government reward, is considered to he an important service to every village community molested by these formidable animals. It is practised by many natives who can afford to buy good rifles and to hire expert ‘shikarrees,’ as well as by Englishmen who axe ambitious to prove their skill and courage. Lady Eva Quin, who is daughter of Lord Connemara, and wife of Captain Quin, is reported to have shot five tigers with her own hand during the past season. This feat would most likely be performed from the howdah of an elephant, which is the Royal mode of tigerhunting. Much effective business is done, in an unostentatious way, by waiting through the night and shooting from an ambush, from behind a rock or up a tree, when the tiger comes to feed oil the carcase of a bullock, or some other animal, previously tied up on the spot and left for him to kill. He is pretty sure to return several times while it affords him meat; and then is the time for paying him off with a bullet. The sketches, by Mr Charles Viuiug, which have been engraved, show the incidents of such a performance in which two of cur countrymen, one of whom may be called Jones, contrive between them to avenge tho loos of a bullock that has been , struck down by a tiger. The report of this, mischief is brought to the two gentlemen, in the verandah of their bungalow ; and they lose no time in mounting a camel which carries double, attended by two shikarrees or assistant huntsmen with rifles, to go and inspect * the kill.’ The experienced natives look about for means of ambush, and then point out to Mr Jones a good hiding-place among the bushes on tho top of a rocky bank, while his companion is advised to climb a tree, of no great height, with thick spreading branches. Tho murdered ox or cow lies within easy shooting distance of both sportsmen, who take up their respective positions at nightfall. After waiting an hour or two, or even several hours, they see the tiger enter upon the scene ; and, as he immediately devotes his attention to the carcase, he is quite unaware of their presence. Jones :\nd_his comrade fire at the same moment, and the tiget is killed. Descending cautiously from their elevated positions,-and beckoning the shikarrees to a consultation, they satisfy themselves of the fact, in which so i e hunters have been deceived to their cost, and proceed to examine the body. It exhibits only one bullet-wound, and the two gentlemen fall into an eager dispute over the question wiiioh of them fired the effective shot. Not being able to agree, they return to the bungalow, where, sitting over the whisky and soda-water, they toss up for the honour of this exploit, or at least for the spoils of the chase. Jones is the winner ; and his delight when the aiain tiger, slung to a pair of bamboo poles, is brought home by four native servants, seems to find expression in a frolicsome ‘pas Beul.' Londou New 3.