Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 137, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 June 1910 — THE STEALTHY TIGER. [ARTICLE]

THE STEALTHY TIGER.

An Silently ns Deuth Itself He Approaches His Prey. An English hunter in India Writes: “I have seen a tiger sitting up 100 yards from me in the sunlight, washing his face like a cat, move a couple of steps into the shade and fade away like the foxy domesticated cat; but what is more extraordinary is that he can move without some dry leaf or stalk crackling to betray him. Often in a hunt in the middle of the dry season the inexperienced sportsman’s heart is in his mouth as he hears the crushing of a dead leaf, the slow, stpalthy tread of what seems some heavy animal; but it is only the peacock, the first to move ahead of the beaters. iThen, after a perod of strained watching, when the eye can and does detect the move of the tiniest bird, the quiver of a leaf, suddenly, without a soundr'-the great beast stands before him. "He does not always move quietly, but when he does death is not more silent. The question of how a white or otherwise abnormally marked tiger can take its prey is simplified by the fact that as a general rule the tiger kills at night or at dawn or dusk, and that it is only the cattle-killing tiger who takes his lordly toil of the village cattle by day. “Again, that wonderful voice, the most mournful sound in captivity, which literally hushes the Jungle and fills the twilight with horror is a powerful aid to him in his hunting. Often 1 have heard it. The memory of one occasion is as vivid as the moment when it held me spellbound. “I was stalking a deer in the evening in the glade of a forest, when suddenly from not 50 yards above me, rang, out a long, low, penetrating moan which seemed to fill the jungle with a terrifying thrill, and for a moment made the heart stand still. "The natives believe that the deer, hearing the tiger’s voice, and unable from the reverberating nature of the sound to locate the position of their enemy, stand or lie still, and so give him the chance of stalking his prey. Unless you are following the tiger and have seen him, it is almost impossible from the sound alone to tell with any certainty where he is.”