rushing out to see what was the matter, we found the man coolly
dressing the wounds of his cow, muttering to himself: 'The robber,
the robber! My last cow, and I had five of them!' He did not seem
to think he had done anything wonderful, and seemed rather surprised
that we should suppose that he was going to let his last heifer go
the way of all the others.

"It is fortunate for these dwellers in the backwoods that but a small
percentage of tigers are man-eaters, perhaps not five per cent.,
otherwise village after village would be depopulated; as it is the
yearly tale of lives lost is a heavy one."[12]

[Footnote 12: 'Seonee.']

Tigers are also eccentric in their ways, showing differences in
disposition under different circumstances. I believe that many a
shikari passes at times within a few yards of a tiger without knowing
it, the tendency of the animal being to crouch and hide until the
strange-looking two-legged beast has passed. The narrowest escape
I ever had is an instance. I had hunted a large tiger, well known
for the savageness of his disposition, on foot from ravine to ravine
on the banks of the Pench, one hot day in June, and, giving him no
rest, made sure of getting him about three o'clock in the afternoon.
He had been seen to slip into a large nullah, bordered on one side
by open country, a small water-course draining into it from the
fields; here was one large _beyr_ bush, behind which I wished to place
myself, but was persuaded by an old shikari of great local reputation
to move farther on. Hardly had we done so when our friend bounded
from under the bush and disappeared in a thicket, where we lost him.
Ten days after this he was killed by a friend and myself, and he
sustained his savage reputation by attacking the elephant without
provocation--a thing a tiger seldom does. I had hunted this animal
several times, and on one occasion saw him swim the Pench river at
one of its broadest reaches. It was the only time I had seen a tiger
swim, and it was interesting to watch him powerfully breasting the
stream with his head well up. Tigers swim readily, as is well known.
I believe it is not uncommon to see them take to the water in the
Sunderbunds; and a recent case may be remembered when two of them
escaped from the King of Oude's Menagerie, and one swam across the
Hooghly to the Botanical Gardens.

There has been some controversy about the way in which tigers kill
their prey. I am afraid I cannot speak d