broken leg was the effect of the only ball which hit her. She scrambled into a bush and frightened the elephant out of his propriety when he came up to her, but she would not show fight, and after giving us a little trouble was pulled up by a ball in the back and gave in. A more sneaking brute I never saw; but she was a notorious man-eater, which accounts for it. On the 25th a tiger was marked down, but so late in the evening that we had no time to finish him. He charged the elephant before he was fired at, who bolted so suddenly that we could not take aim. This would never do: there was only about half an hour of daylight remaining, and no time for giving a frightened elephant a lesson, so we took to trees and had the tiger beat up. He came pretty close to me, and I hit him with both barrels, but he contrived to crawl into a small thicket where we lost sight of him. The few remaining minutes of twilight were vainly employed in beating for him with the elephant, and we were obliged to finish the day with a tedious ride of nine miles in the dark. Next morning I took out the elephant to search for the wounded tiger, and luckily succeeded in finding him. He was much exhausted, and must have died in a few hours, as his wounds were already mortified; one hind leg was broken, and his entrails were hanging on the ground, but he still looked savage, and able to make a fight. A ball between the eyes put him out of his misery before he had time to rise. Some natives lately killed a tiger which we had wounded about two months before; and how an animal could have survived so long in the state in which they described him to be is inconceivable. His foreleg was broken in two places, the ball, which was fired from a high tree, having entered the shoulder. The wound was festering and full of maggots, and the animal reduced to a skeleton, yet in this crippled state he killed one of the men who attacked him. 30th.-A panther was killed this morning after a great deal of sport. He was found in his hole among rocks, from which he bolted when the elephant was brought up. We gave chase in view and found him crouched among bare rocks, from which he dashed back towards his old den at a regular racing pace, untouched. by one of the many balls fired. A native marked him into a small hole where he could occasionally catch a glimpse of him, and several random shots were fired in hopes of either finishing him in his parlour or making him appear. After a few seconds he charged out most gallantly, and I certainly thought from his appearance that he intended to pay us a visit in the howdah; but his intentions, whatever they might have been, were stopped by a ball in the back of the head, which dropped him dead. April 1st.-Shot a bear and two cubs, which the old lady was carrying about on her back. 2nd. Speared a wolf after a very long run. 6th. A bear showed sport after being slightly wounded. He took across the country; we gave chase and ran him for upwards of a mile, during which my friend speared him repeatedly. My horse would not go up he had been mauled before. The bear at last got disgusted and laid up in covert, where we shot him. His expression of face when speared was most ludicrous. Here I must pull up if I wish this to reach you in time for your I have taken the trouble to measure seventeen killed here in the last few months, and the largest was only 9ft. 5in. in length, and I have seen upwards of a hundred skins none of which would exceed that length and very few equal it. Can any one tell me if there be any truth in the popular idea that a tiger's age may be known by the number of lobes in his liver? It sounds ridiculous, and the savans will laugh at me for asking such a question. I shall, however, give a few instances tending to establish the truth of what is apparently a vulgar pre A LINE FROM On the appearance of my very unpretending letter in your 12th number my enemies crowded so thick and fast upon me, and so "compassed me in on every side," that I unexpectedly found myself in a similar predicament with the Holy Psalmist, and had wellnigh ejaculated, "peccavi." Time, how ever, which develops the most inscrutable mysteries, and not unfrequently establishes the unworthiness of fancied excellence, has at last thrown a little light on the subject at issue, through the medium of a true and faithful account of this year's entertainment at Ahmedabad; - a document which was this morning put into my hands, and will save me the trouble of convincing your correspondent Scrutator that "the winner of the Ladies' Purse" experienced, if anything, better treatment at my hands than his judice. A tiger, apparently old, and the largest ever killed by an old shikaree who had shot many, had twelve lobes. A tigress, which had been known to frequent the same nullah for upwards of five years, whose teeth were much worn and the sutures of the skull unusually close-both marks of old age had eleven lobes. A tiger full-grown, but from the appearance of the teeth a young animal, had only seven lobes. These are the only instances 1 have myself remarked, but a correspondent in one of your early numbers mentions a tigress having, I think, eight lobes and her cub only four. This is certainly not proof, but it inclines me to believe. LAWRY TODD. OBSERVATOR. subsequent performances have shown him to deserve. There are three points, however, on which I am anxious to satisfy myself. Does Scrutator intend to imply ignorance of the fact that the Goblin was only recovering from a severe indisposition, which had interfered with his exercise for upwards of ten days prior to that preceding his defeat, and had wellnigh caused it to be said of him, that his "sublunary race was run?" Does he pretend to deny that his very appearance, except in the eye of the most blindly prejudiced imagination, did not plainly indicate him to be in no fit condition for the contest? and does he moreover desire to be considered ignorant of the expressed opinion of almost every person present (who had one in the matter), that the time of the first heat was booked several seconds better than the reality warranted? Because if he does, I can only say the sooner the subject is dropped the better. I regret to observe that Minstrel has not come to the scratch this year, because I have little doubt in my own mind that he also would have found means to ratify my recorded opinion of his capabilities. As the case stands, however, I can only put it to Scrutator whether, until a horse has most indisputably established a character for excellence, his most enthusiastic admirers even can expect him to enjoy the reputation of that attribute unquestioned? Minstrel was beaten easily by Lunatic, who was in his turn as easily beaten by Regent, who was "licked" by Master Henry, who was "leathered" by Oomrah, who was "wallopped by Wildrake, who all the world has defeated. So he is no great shakes after all. I can assure Scrutator that he has egregiously blundered, too, in his opinion of the identity of Turf and Observator; he must "try back." To S. Y. S., who I have un fortunately touched in a sore place without intending it, I beg to offer my apologies. He will also accept my gratulations on Bustle's successful efforts to exonerate himself from the imputation of mediocrity cast upon him by my letter. After all, I only spoke of him as I found him— ordinary enough, certainly-and not in the spirit of prophetic vision, and the report of his improvement has therefore afforded me considerable gratification. Bythe-by, the sporting community in this part of the world have found inconceivable difficulty to reconcile the conflicting issue of many of the races at Poonah this year, and have in consequence formed opinions very far from creditable to the training capabilities of proprietors. Goblin, amongst others, appears to have been fairly bewitched. Perhaps S. Y. S., as an unbiassed spectator, will be able to clear up this mistake with the same unanswerable perspicuity that he has others from the pen of OBSERVATOR. A HINT TO GOURMANDS WHO READ THE O. S. M. There's not a bird that skims the air And some there are, which on the board And fit for Aldermanic Lord, Ay, e'en were he Lord Mayor. The hooting Owl midst other birds And 'twould be but a waste of words But not till lately was it known Both legs and wings, both flesh and bone, But such is fact, and when you kill With human face, and crooked bill, See the Cook's description of an Owl in No. 15 of the O. S. M., supposed by several persons, from its exquisite flavour, to have been a woodcock. THE REGULAR-BRED FARRIER. It was in the beginning of '24, I think, that Mr. Bruton, of Bristol, promulgated his new system of shoeing in the Deccan; but before we enter on an investigation of the merits of that system as opposed to the practice of the inventor's predecessors, we must subject his person to the prelimito the preliminaries of a formal presentation to your pages; and to this end I cannot do better than narrate the circumstances attending his selfarranged introduction to me. I was in the stable one morning shortly after my arrival, when a procession insinuated itself by the compound gate, and stood in my presence. It consisted of about five or six sable aspirants to veterinary celebrity, severally encumbered with a "symptom" emblematic of their profession; and was preceded by a short, rubicund, consequential personage, who, while he exhibited no positive unwieldy obesity, was nevertheless possessed of striking posterial, and corresponding abdominal, luxu riance. A cylindrical arm, bared to the elbow, terminated in a hand which-to borrow an idea from my facetious acquaintance, Corporal Jenkins-bore a glaring resemblance to a foot, while-to pursue the figure-his foot bore a still more obvious similitude to a fire shovel. His head, which more nearly resembled a spherical case shot than anything I can at present recall to my recollection, adhered to a pair of huge brawny shoulders, without the customary but clearly superfluous cartilaginous interposition of a neck, and was decorated with a pair of cheeks of the cherub description, but somewhat bloated and inflated, and combining that happy amalgamation of purple and carnation, not altogether removed from the general aspect of a mulberry. From the exact centre of these cheeks protruded the nasal excrescence of the shape vulgarly denominated "bottle," its fungous and phosphoric extremity bearing unequivocal testimony to many a brimming bumper of Pop, and "British Compounds." An atrociously low forehead was enhanced by a small unbecoming cap, which appeared to be an omnium gatherum for every filth and abomination that had come in its way for the last twenty years, and on either side of the forehead, hedged in and fortified by a stockade of closely-shorn bristles, were two auricular protuberances of the sample emphatically termed "lob," but of the most preposterous and alarming dimensions, and their circumferences in a state of such intense irritation as to convey to the spectator the idea of an approach to the last stage of mortification. A pair of dizzy reddish eyes, indicative of recent intemperance, and a mouth which, from being instrumental to the propensities of its proprietor, had acquired an indisputably bibacious appearance, at the moment grossed with the mastication of a fid of the Virginian plant, completes the portraiture. en By a protracted rectangular movement of the arm, Mr. Bruton (for it was him) brought the dexter bony appurtenance I have already described as doing duty for a hand into immediate contamination, not with the leather peak of his cap-for after the most minute scrutiny I failed to discover even the smallest traces of such an appendage-but with the centre of his very remarkably ugly forehead, and by a simultaneous but dissimilar movement of the sinister, a balling-iron, which had been previously revolving on the forefinger, was rapidly lowered to the occupation of that indispensable position on the outer seam of the nether garment, so precisely defined by Torrens and other military enthusiasts. Moreover, during these operations the fire shovels were to be seen diligently arranging themselves to the prescribed measure of onethird of a semicircle, although, from the eccentric conformation of the legs to which they were appended, a compliance with this latter injunction was clearly attended with no inconsiderable difficulty. "Good morning, Sir. I came to enquire if you have any jobs wants doing in the veterinary line, because all the gentlemen mostly prefers employing of me to do their work; and it's better to have cattle properly tended and looked after at once by a regular-bred farrier, than to have it bungled by any of them young 'ands which are always either in canteen or the kanjee rooms. D-n 'em" (here his feel ings quite overpowered him), “I taught them what little they does know, and now the wipers is all fighting who shall be first to pull the bread out of my mouth. My father and grandfather before me was both regular-bred farriers." I was fain to acknowledge the advantageous circumstances under which he had received his education, and expressed an intention of occasionally availing myself of his profound veterinary erudition. He rejoined "Yes, Sir, because I was thinking of physicing the bay pony, and taking a spoonful of blood from his plate vein-I'll warrant it wouldn't do him no harm; but of course " (and he assumed an air and tone of positive indifference) "you can please yourself about that." The option being thus obligingly left me, I declined on the part of the bay pony the honour intended him, on the grounds that he enjoyed perfect health. Mr. Bruton proceeded. proceeded. "The grey's 'oofs is terrible, and so is the yellow 'orse's, and that's why I wanted to come to some sort of a settlement whether you'll find your own shoes and nails; and then it will be only half-a-rupee all round, and a quarter cutting. As for the matter of that, it was but as long back |