WCP7091

Published letter (WCP7091.8209)

[1] [p. 199]

An experienced tiger-hunter, Major Walford, states in a letter, that the haunts of the tiger are invariably full of the long grass, dry and pale yellow for at least nine months of the year, which covers the ground wherever there is water in the rainy season, and he adds: "I once, while following up a wounded tiger, failed for at least a minute to see him under a tree in grass at a distance of about twenty yards-jungle open-but the natives saw him, and I eventually made him out well enough to shoot him, but even then I could not see at what part of him I was aiming. There can be no doubt whatever that the colour of both the tiger and the panther renders them almost invisible, especially in a strong blaze of light, when among grass, and one does not seem to notice stripes or spots till they are dead."

Please cite as “WCP7091,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 25 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP7091