Tiger Hunting Books Page 2

Tiger hunting books were written by many British military men who were posted to India during the time of the British Raj (1858 to 1947). Tiger hunting was one of their main leisure activities and a good tiger trophy enhanced manly prestige for some. Others took to tiger hunting as part of their interest in the natural history of India. After service In India, many officers decamped to Africa where many settled and continued their colonial and hunting careers.

The officers often took part in driven tiger shoots, riding on elephants or horses, which were considered great social events. Many of the super-rich maharajas of the time also loved the regal sport of tiger hunting, ordering fantastic custom Holland & Holland rifles by the dozen, and going out into the field with all their luxurious creature comforts.

'Shikari' is the term used for a native professional hunter in India. They were recruited by British officers and maharajas because of their local knowledge of the jungle and hunting skills.

Baiting a tiger with a dead or alive domestic animal and shooting from a machan was the uncomfortable method of choice, especially by forest rangers who were trying to deal with a problem man-eating tiger. Once up the tree, a hunter was stuck there until morning light as it was foolhardy to come down in the darkness when the tiger might still be around.

D King Martin

The Ways Of Man And Beast In India by D King Martin (1935) Free eBook

Lt-General H G Martin

Sunset From The Main by Lt-Gen H G Martin (1951). Sporting memories of a Horse and Field Artilleryman in India. Includes chapters on mahseer fishing (with frogs as bait), trout fishing in Kashmir, hunting tiger, Tibetan argal, ibex, gazelle, bear, shooting bustard and pig sticking in India and Iraq.

Major-General Sir Frederick Maurice

Major-General Sir Frederick Barton Maurice (1871 - 1951) was a British general, military correspondent, writer and academic.

Soldier, Artist, Sportsman: The Life Of General Lord Rawlinson Of Trent From His Journal And Letters by Sir Frederick Maurice (1928). Service in India, Boer War and World War I and finally C-in-C India (1920). Includes bear and tiger hunting in India as well as pig-sticking and polo.

Sir George Maxwell

Sir William George Maxwell (1871 - 1959) was a British naturalist and colonial administrator in British Malaya and Straits Settlements.

In Malay Forests by Sir George Maxwell (1907) is a collection of autobiographical articles set in the states of the Malay Peninsula over quite a period of time. They illustrate George Maxwell's deep interest in the forests of the country. Chapter headings include: Crocodile catching; A Tiger-Drive, Tuba Fishing, A Were-Tiger and A Deer-Drive. Free eBook

Charles McCann

A Shikar's Pocket Book by Charles McCann (1927). The book is contained in brown wallet with an accompanying separate big game register. The register is divided into dates, species, locality, measurements, remarks. 13 sides are filled in a neat hand and there is also a section for notes, 1 side filled in covering the years 1931 to 1937. The game mentioned include crocodile, panther, sloth, bear, tiger and python. The author goes into detail on the hunt and the shot. A very scarce item and unique with the register. Written with Lt Col C H Stockley.

Andrew McDearmid

Dr Andrew Mayfield McDearmid (1922 - 2017) was an American big game hunter and missionary who spent 25 years in India.

Heart Of A Hunter: Big Game Hunting by Andrew McDearmid (2002) shares his hunting tales from the high Himalayas to steaming jungles where he found himself stalking man-eating tigers and killer elephants.

Charles McDougal

The Face Of The Tiger by Charles McDougal (1977) examines the life of the tiger, the world's most powerful predator. A study of tigers in the Indian subcontinent, with special reference to the Nepalese terai. McDougal began by hunting tigers and ended up as Director of Operations and Chief Naturalist at Tiger Tops Jungle Lodge in the Royal Chitawan National Park.

Brigadier General William Mitchell

Brigadier General William Mitchell (1879 - 1936) was a United States Army general who is regarded as the father of the US Air Force. He and his wife hunted tigers in India on their honeymoon, as guests of a maharajah.

Tiger Hunting In India by Brigadier General William Mitchell (1924)

Read the National Geographic archive article (with photos) about Brigadier General William Mitchell's tiger hunt

A F Mockler-Ferryman

Lt Col Augustus Ferryman Mockler-Ferryman (1856 - 1930) served in the Oxfordshire Light Infantry and was a prolific author of books on the countries in which he was stationed.

The Life Story Of A Tiger by A F Mockler-Ferryman (1910)

Up The Niger: Narrative Of Major Claude Macdonald's Mission To The Niger And Benue Rivers, West Africa by Captain A F Mockler-Ferryman (1892) is an important account of the MacDonald expedition to the Niger and Benue rivers in western Africa in 1889 to investigate complaints about the Royal Niger Company, with much on native life, hunting and exploration. Free eBook

Godfrey Charles Mundy

Godfrey Charles Mundy (1804 - 1860) was a British Major General who took part in the Siege of Bharatpur in 1825. During the Crimean War he was under-secretary in the War Office and in 1857 he was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of Jersey in the Channel Islands.

Pen And Pencil Sketches: Being The Journal Of A Tour In India by Godfrey Charles Mundy (1832) 2 Volumes. This is a personal account of a hunting trip by the author who travelled through Benares, Lucknow, Simla and Delhi. The charming plates are made after drawings by the author himself, of which many depict elephant and tiger scenes. Free eBook Vol I Free eBook Vol II

Arthur Musselwhite

Arthur Musselwhite was a photographer and adventurer who in 1930 took over Bourne & Shepherd, one of the world's oldest established photographic studios, originally founded in 1863, in Simla.

Behind The Lens In Tigerland by Arthur Musselwhite (1933) includes photos by the author showing tigers in India and Nepal, other wildlife, local people and elephant-back tiger hunts.

Captain J T Newall

The Eastern Hunters by Captain J T Newall (1866). Most of the book is taken from the author's journals and notebooks. Much on tiger hunting including an account of a sporting feat by a "lamented brother" of a successful right and left shot at tigers.

Scottish Moors And Indian Jungles: Scenes Of Sport In The Lewis And India by Captain J T Newall (1889). Details of his travels in Lewis for deer, grouse and fishing. Part II covers bear and tiger hunting in India. Free eBook

Hog Hunting In The East: And Other Sports by Captain J T Newall (1867)

Frank Nicholls

Assam Shikari by Frank Nicholls (1970). During 50 years in India, the author managed to bag numerous animals including 28 tigers and many leopards. He also fished Mahseer in many waters.

Samuel H Noble

Samuel H Noble (b. 1838) includes the tale of hunting a man-eating tiger in his adventures. He is not to be confused with Sam 'Buckskin' Stone Hall.

Life And Adventures Of Buckskin Sam by Samuel H Noble (1900). The author tells of his life and adventures on the sea, with Indians in South America, on a sheep ranch in South America, a visit to Liverpool, England, his recruitment into the British Army, thrilling times in India, big game hunting, return to England and his return to New York. There is a chapter on his enlistment in the First Regiment of Connecticut Cavalry, under the command of General George Armstrong Custer. Free eBook

H N Norman

Tattered Shuttlecock: The Life And Adventures Of H N Norman by H N Norman (1937) is an account of his life and travels including serving in WW1, India, farming in Kenya and more.

Aubrey O'Brien & Reginald Bolster

Lt-Col Aubrey John O'Brien (1870 – 1930) was an officer in the British Indian Army and a writer on India.

Cupid And Cartridges by Aubrey O'Brien & Reginald Bolster (1911) is an account of both authors' travels through India where they hunted boar, duck and crocodile. Free eBook

Laurence Oliphant

Laurence Oliphant (1829 - 1888) was a British author, traveller, diplomat, and politician.

A Journey To Katmandu by Laurence Oliphant (1852) is a rare account of Nepal. Oliphant spent some of his early years in Ceylon, where his father was chief justice. In 1851 he was invited by Jung Bahadur to join a hunting excursion in Nepal and it is this trip that forms the basis of this work. Free eBook

B B Osmaston

Bertram Beresford Osmaston (1867 - 1961) was an officer in the Imperial Forestry Service in India. He joined the Forest Service in India in 1888 and served in the United Provinces, Bengal, Andamans, Burma and retired as a Chief Conservator of the Central Provinces. He was a keen naturalist and made notes of his observations during postings in various parts of India.

Wild Life And Adventures In Indian Forests by B B Osmaston (1977). Osmaston arrived in India in 1888, bagging his first tiger near Mundali, he spent much of his career as a forest officer in various regions and recounts numerous encounters with big game. Much of the book is related to the birds and fauna of India.

Charlie 'Snaffles' Johnson Payne

Charlie 'Snaffles' Johnson Payne (1884 -1967) was a British artist who was considered as one of the greatest sporting and military artist of his time. He developed an early passion for hunting in all its forms, and the Services which, as he tells us, "in those days went hand in hand". He joined the Royal Garrison Artillery at the age of 18 as a gunner but in 1906 he was forced to leave because of illness. However, his time in the army was influential, as his first recorded works of semi-caricature portrait date from this time. Invalided out of World War One, Payne took a job as a war artist for 'The Graphic' and it was during these years that he produced some of his finest military work. It was as a sporting artist that 'Snaffles' built his reputation and, after the War, he worked on the hunting, shooting, polo, racing and fishing subjects which made his name. The classic series of pig-sticking prints he completed in India in the 1920s are perhaps the images for which he is best known and his depictions of military life in the Raj are second to none.

More Bandobast by Charlie 'Snaffles'Johnson Payne (1936). The author recounts pig-sticking exploits with brief notes on sambar and tiger, excellent colour plates and drawings.

E H Peacock

Lieutenant Colonel Edgar Henry William Peacock (1893 - 1955) was a forest and game warden in Burma and went on to have a distinguished career as a British Officer commanding special forces operations behind Japanese lines in Burma during the Second World War.

A Game Book For Burma And Adjoining Territories by E H Peacock (1933) is a splendid account of wildlife and hunting by the Deputy Conservator of Forests and Game Warden in Burma.

Michel Peissel

Tiger For Breakfast: The Story Of Boris Of Kathmandu by Michel Peissel (1966) is the biography Boris Lissanevitch, former dancer with Diaghilev, proprietor of the Royal Hotel in Kathmandu, socialite and big-game hunter.

Richard Perry

The World Of The Tiger by Richard Perry (1964) describes the habitats and activities of tigers throughout Asia and India.

Lieutenant John Pester

Lieutenant John Pester (1778 - 1856) went to India to join the forces of the East India Company in 1801. He retired as a Lieutenant-Colonel in 1826, having never been absent from duty, except when sick.

War And Sport In India 1802-1806: An Officer's Diary by Lieutenant John Pester (1928) was edited and published by a relative of the author, J A Devenish, who also later went to India as an engineer. Pester describes the battles and skirmishes of the time in India as the Company protected it's trade and domains. Lt John Pester also describes his big game hunting expeditions for hog, tiger and more. Free eBook

Brigadier-General R Pigot

Brigadier-General Sir Robert Pigot (1882 - 1977) had an illustrious military career and was a remarkable big game hunter.

Twenty Five Years Big Game Hunting by Brigadier-General R Pigot (1928). Big game hunting moose in Norway, mouflon, deer and boar in Sardinia, ibex in Egypt, tiger, leopard, ibex, bear, markhor, antelope, sheep, burhel and other game in India, gaur and tsaine in Burma, sheep in Mongolia, deer in Siam, tiger in Siberia, caribou in Newfoundland, ibex, wapiti and sheep in China, sheep in the Russian Parmirs and red deer in New Zealand.

Reginald I Pocock

Reginald Innes Pocock (1863 - 1947) was a British zoologist.

The Fauna Of British India, Including Ceylon And Burma by Reginald I Pocock (1939 & 1941) Two Volumes. A scarce work detailing in scientific terms the primates and carnivores in India, Burma and Ceylon. The sections on the carnivores includes numerous references to big game hunters such as Stockley, Dunbar Brander, Colonel Kennion and others.

Arthur John Osborne Pollock

Lt Colonel Arthur John Osborne Pollock (1846 - 1901) served in the Royal Scots Fusiliers.

Sporting Days In Southern India: Being Reminiscences Of Twenty Trips In Pursuit Of Big Game, Chiefly In The Madras Presidency by Arthur John Osborne Pollock (1894) details the hunting of bear, panther, bison, tiger, elephant, various deer species, antelope and ibex, mainly in the Madras state. There is also helpful advice on travel, camping and even how to prepare for the monsoon season. Free eBook

Fitz William Thomas Pollok

Lt Colonel Fitz William Thomas Pollok (1832 - 1909) had 13 years of military service in India and Burma.

Incidents Of Foreign Sport And Travel by Fitz William Thomas Pollok (1896). Adventure and danger during Victorian times in India, Africa and the Azores. Mostly big game hunting with much trouble with the servants. Free eBook

Sport In British Burma, Assam, And The Cassyah And Jyntiah Hills by Fitz William Thomas Pollok (1879) Free eBook Vol I Free eBook Vol II

Fifty Years Of Reminiscences Of India: A Retrospect Of Travel, Adventure And Shikar by Fitz William Thomas Pollok (1896). Colonel Pollok's finest work, recalling his adventures of hunting tiger, leopard, rhino, buffalo, elephant and other big game in the Indian subcontinent. He was known to have shot a rhino each morning before breakfast. Free eBook

Wild Sports Of Burma And Assam by Fitz William Thomas Pollok & W S Thom (1900) Free eBook

Arthur Nugent Waldemar Powell

Colonel Arthur Nugent Waldemar Powell (b.1896) served with the Bedfordshire Regiment in India.

Call Of The Tiger by Col A N W Powell (1957) is an account of the author's numerous hunts for Indian big game including tiger, panther in the Siwalik Hills, goral, bear and panther in the Himalayas and buffalo as well as other game. Free eBook

Pir Ali Muhammad Rashdi

Pir Ali Muhammad Rashdi (1905 - 1987) was a a journalist, a newspaper proprietor and a politician, becoming Pakistan's ambassador to China and the Phillipines.

Sindh Ways And Days: Shikar And Other Memories by Pir Ali Muhammad Rashdi (2003) The author puts shikar in context in the socio-political fabric of Sindh, detailing information about weapons used and preferred hunting style and also listing information on renowned marksmen. A geographic and cultural link between India and the Middle East, and the Indian and Persian civilizations, Sindh was home to one of the oldest civilizations in the world. This book provides heady and interesting titbits about Sindh in an age gone by. A fascinating account of hunting in the sub-continent by a contemporary of Jim Corbett.

William Rice

Major-General William Rice served with the 25th Bombay Native Light Infantry Regiment. A keen tiger hunter...he accounted for 158 tigers in 4 years.

Tiger-Shooting In India by William Rice (1857) is an account of hunting experiences on foot in Rajpootana, during the hot seasons from 1850 to 1854. There is an account of the author saving his colleague, Hugh Elliot, who was seized and dragged by a wounded tigress. Rice made a well-placed shot through the top of the animal's skull.

Indian Game: From Quail To Tiger by William Rice (1884) Free eBook

C A G Rivaz

Indian Small Game Shooting For Novices by C A G Rivaz (1912) is one of the first books on hunting small game and birds in India for beginners. It is a book of advice, suggestions and information from the authors own experiences in different parts of India. Free eBook

The Earl Of Ronaldshay

Lawrence John Lumley Dundas (1876 – 1961), the 2nd Marquess of Zetland, was styled as the Earl of Ronaldshay between 1892 and 1929. He was a British Conservative politician and author who became the Governor of Bengal between 1917 and 1922, then later, served as Secretary of State for India in the late 1930s.

Sport And Politics Under An Eastern Sky by The Earl Of Ronaldshay (1902) is the story of the author's travels and life when he became the Governor of Bengal, India in 1899. He hunted markhor, ibex, bear and many other species. Free eBook

Kermit Roosevelt

Cleared For Strange Ports by Kermit Roosevelt (1927) is a series of travel accounts by the Roosevelt clan, including a tiger hunting trip by Kermit, as well as his account of hunting in Korea, along the Trans-Siberian railway, as well as bear hunting on Montague Island, Alaska.
Other hunting books by Kermit Roosevelt

C E M Russell

Charles Edward Mackintosh Russell (dates unknown) was a British lawyer and forestry official in Mysore, India. He first went to India in 1876 and started his forestry appointment in 1882. In 1896 he left Mysore to practice law in Madura, south India.

Bullet And Shot In Indian Forest, Plain And Hill: With Hints To Beginners In Indian Shooting by C E M Russell (1900) relates natural history information, habitat details, and his own sporting experiences concerning various species such as bison, buffalo, yak, and tsine (banteng) in the first chapters. His tiger hunting experiences in Mysore come with advice on equipping shooting machans - "I always made myself comfortable when watching, and, being a heavy smoker, I always smoke...a mattress and pillows and a book should be taken up on to the machan...and I invariably drank soda-water, and not plain water, when in the jungles." The author also includes chapters on hunting elephant, bear, panther, Nilgiri ibex and various species of deer. Free eBook

William Howard Russell

Sir William Howard Russell (1820 - 1907) was a British journalist who became the first 'war correspondent', after he spent 22 months covering the Crimean War.

The Tour Of The Prince Of Wales In India by William Howard Russell (1878). Travel and tiger hunting by the royal party (the future King Edward VII when he was Prince of Wales in 1875/76) in India's Kumaon area and in Nepal. It is beautifully illustrated with numerous engravings by the royal artist Sydney P Hall. Free eBook

G P Sanderson

George Peress Sanderson (1848 - 1892) was the officer in charge of the government elephant catching establishment in Mysore and big game hunter. He introduced a new way of catching wild elephants for subsequent taming and training in forestry work. Instead of trapping elephants in pits, he tried to drive herds into fenced, ditched enclosure.

Thirteen Years Among The Wild Beasts Of India: Their Haunts And Habits From Personal Observation With An Account Of The Modes Of Capturing And Taming Elephants by G P Sanderson (1878) details the author's hunting of other animals as well as his experiences and advice capturing elephants and their characteristics in captivity. Free eBook

Isabel Savory

Isabel Savory (b.1869) became a famous best-selling author after the hunting expedition she made with friends from Bombay up to Peshawar, to the Khyber Pass into Kashmir and then to the Nigiri Hills.

A Sportswoman In India: Personal Adventures And Experiences Of Travel In Known And Unknown India by Isabel Savory (1900). 'Do not set out on a tiger shoot without being prepared for a great deal of discomfort. Your temper, your personal comforts, will all be trodden under foot, and every annoyance must be borne under circumstances which amount sometimes to purgatory. Unless a woman is physically strong, it would be foolhardiness to spend eight weeks under such conditions'. Free Ebook
More Isabel Savory Books

Ton Schilling

Tigermen Of Anai by Ton Schilling (1957). A government official in the old Dutch East Indies (Indonesia), Schilling describes his hunts after rogue elephant, tiger and panthers in the jungles of Sumatra and Java. There are several particularly gruesome encounters with crocodiles.

Charles W Schlegelmilch

Memoirs Of A Hunter: The Exciting Experiences Of a Lancaster County Big Game Hunter by Charles W Schlegelmilch (1967). Worldwide hunting adventures from Alaska, British Columbia and the US northwest to hunting in Mozambique and India. All his hunting, no matter how big the game, was done with a .300 Savage rifle.

Jack Denton Scott

Jack Denton Scott (1915 - 1995) was a prolific and versatile American author of books and magazine articles. He was an experienced big game hunter and in 1957 he travelled to India to hunt tiger and buffalo with his wife, Mary Lou Scott. Having hunted in Africa, Mexico, Canada and many other countries, he wrote that he never encountered anything that required as much restraint, patience and strength of character as sitting up all night on an Indian hunting platform stalking tigers and leopards.

Forests Of The Night by Jack Denton Scott (1959) is the account of a hunting expedition organized by the Indian government in Madhya Pradesh, one of India's central provinces. The book describes the scenery of this most beautiful area, the game that was hunted, the equipment used, and the Indian hunters, tackers and villagers they met. Free eBook

E H D Sewell

Edward Humphrey Dalrymple Sewell (1872 - 1947) was a British first class cricketer, author and jounalist. He was born in Lingsugur, India where his father served as an Army officer.

The Log Of A Sportsman by E H D Sewell (1923) recounts his life as a big game hunter, cricketer and rugby player in England and India. There are four chapters on his life in India, which include hunting bear, tiger, leopard, sambur and other game, and fishing for mahseer at his home on the Kumaon Lakes.

An Outdoor Wallah by E H D Sewell (1945) is his autobiography.

Captain Henry Shakespear

Captain Henry John Childe Shakespear (1814 - 1884) was a British officer in the Indian Nagpore Irregular Horse and was a renowned big game hunter. He hunted with a Wilkinson double rifle and was the designer of the classic Wilkinson-Shakespear hunting knife.

Wild Sports Of India by Captain Henry Shakespear (1860) describes his experiences in hunting a wide range of Indian animals, including man-eaters, panthers, bears, buffalo and wild elephants and goes on to discuss the breeds of horses found in India, and the forming and equipping of irregular cavalry units. The author suggests that better training in horsemanship would have served the British well during the Mutiny. Free eBook

Sir Henry Sharp

Sir Henry Sharp (1869 - 1954) was an Indian Colonial Administrator, big game hunter and author.

Good-bye India by Sir Henry Sharp (1946). Experiences of a former Indian Educational Commissioner including tiger and small game shooting.

E O Shebbeare

Edward Oswald Shebbeare (1884 - 1964) joined the Indian Forest Service in 1906 and retired as Senior Conservator of Forests, Bengal, in 1938. He went on to become the Chief Game Warden in Malaya. He was also the Transport Officer for the 1924 and 1933 Everest Expeditions.

Soondar Mooni: The Story Of An Indian Elephant by E O Shebbeare (1958). The story of an Indian elephant, her early life as a wild elephant and her capture and training as a working elephant in north west Assam. Includes tiger shooting.

Lt Col Frank Sheffield

Colonel Frank Sheffield was the commanding officer of 1st Cadet Battalion, Royal Fusiliers and he wrote his book to raise money to fund a permanent headquarters buildings. The story is one of a thrilling encounter with a Royal Bengal tiger, in which Colonel Sheffield was terribly mauled.

How I Killed The Tiger: Being An Account Of My Encounter With A Royal Bengal Tiger by Lt Col Frank Sheffield (1902) is a description of killing a tiger in 1871, also about India, Indian life and customs. The appendix contains copies of letters from Winston Churchill, G Manville Fenn, Anthony Hope, the Archbishop of Canterbury and members of the Royal Familiy, to whom presumably complimentary copies were sent, plus various favourable press opinions. Free eBook

Donald V Shuhart

Tiger In My Lap by Don V Shuhart (1964) is the astonishing tale of Texan, Donald Vincent Shuhart, who followed a wounded tiger into the tall grass and found himself helplessly trapped by the beast, yet he emerged alive, the only man, the Indian hunters told him, to have survived such an experience. The infuriated Bengal tiger had pinned him down, clawed him and broke his leg. Then the tiger, fully aware that he had the man anchored, sat back to plan his next move. Exhausted and bleeding, Shuhart looked into the tiger's eyes, shuddered and thought "this is a hell of a way to die!"

Rahul Shukla

Killing Grounds: The Saga Of Encounters In The Wild by Rahul Shukla (1995) is a personal account of adventures experienced by Dr Rahul Shukla, scion of a feudal family, where tiger hunting has been handed down from generation to generation. This tradition of big game hunting provided the author with an opportunity to witness at first hand the magnificence of Indian wild life as also the terrible loss it suffered at the hands of hunters and poachers. This era of ravaging the wild started in the middle of the 19th century up until 1972, when it finally concluded with the blanket ban on shooting.

Charles Shuttleworth

Charles Shuttleworth (1923 - 2014) was a British police reservist who commanded a remote jungle fort during the Communist guerrilla war on the Malayan peninsula. His mission was to safeguard the local aboriginal tribes which prompted him later to write about them. Charles continued to spend long periods in the Malayan rainforest, both as an independent naturalist and as a professional safari guide.

Hutan Rimba: Safaris In The Malayan Jungle by Charles Shuttleworth (1963) is a very interesting account which includes the author's experiences as a police reservist in charge of a Jungle Squad fighting Chinese Communists during the Malayan emergency."Safari is, in the minds of most people, synonymous with Africa in general and Kenya in particular. Safaris are almost never connected with other countries, yet it is a fact that they are conducted in India, South America, Cambodia, Thailand and by myself here in Malaya, and adjacent territories. Whilst I do cater for the big game hunter, most of my clients are men of science such as zoologists, botanists, ethnologists and others like amateur photographers and professional film men."

Malayan Safari by Charles Shuttleworth (1967) describes numerous animal encounters in the jungle with brief mention of stalking tiger and rogue elephant.

Frank B Simson

Letters On Sport In Eastern Bengal by Frank B Simson (1886) covers a wide range of sport, including deer, pig, tiger, buffalo and game birds. Free eBook

Gordon Sinclair

Gordon Sinclair (1900 - 1984) was a Canadian broadcast journalist. In the late 1920s and 1930s he travelled around the world as a wandering reporter and wrote of his adventures in 4 books including 'Khyber Caravan'.

Khyber Caravan: Through Kashmir, Waziristan, Afghanistan, Baluchistan And Northern India by Gordon Sinclair (1936) with some big game hunting on the way, including antelope and tiger.

Colonel Kesri Singh

Colonel Kesri Singh served as a member of the Gwalior State Game Department as head of the Silakhana (Hunting Dept), Forestry and Police Depts.

One Man And A Thousand Tigers by Colonel Kesri Singh (1959). Recollections of encounters with tigers by an Indian game warden and hunter. Free eBook

The Tiger of Rajasthan by Colonel Kesri Singh (1959). "Many of his hunts were in pursuit of cattle-stealing tigers and man-eaters who were terrorising villages. But he also organised tiger shoots for many of the Maharaja's famous guests, including the late King George V".

Hints On Tiger Shooting by Colonel Kesri Singh (1963) elaborates on the techniques the author has used to hunt tigers. Included are methods of stalking, shooting from machans, choice of rifles and even spearing tigers. He considers stalking far more sporting than shooting from a machan or howdah.

Pocket Encyclopaedia Of Shikar: Dealing With Game Birds And Animals by Colonel Kesri Singh (1970)

Hunting With Horse And Spear by Colonel Kesri Singh (1964)

A Mervyn Smith

Sport And Adventure In The Indian Jungle by A Mervyn Smith (1904). Hunting in India during the Raj period with encounters with elephant, tiger, bear, leopard, bison and other large and small game of India. It combines the author's personal experiences with stories related by natives and other British hunters in India. Free eBook

E A Smythies

Evelyn Arthur Smythies (1885 - 1975) was a distinguished forester and philatelist, born of British parents in India. His wife, Olive Smythies also wrote several books about their life in India.

Big Game Shooting In Nepal: With Leaves From The Maharaja's Sporting Diary by E A Smythies (1942) The author was a conservator of forests in India, Kumaon division for nearly three decades, a tiger hunter and a close friend of Jim Corbett.

Spy Glass (Frank Ryan)

Tramps In The Indian Jungles by Spy Glass (1923) describes the author's hunts after big cats in various regions of India, including Bangalore. He also includes his hunting experiences after gaur, bear, sambur, chital and hunting a tiger near the Nilgiri Plateau. It is a very scarce title.

Edward Percy Stebbing

Edward Percy Stebbing (1870 - 1960) was a British political observer, forester and forest entomologist in India. After service in India, he became a professor at the University of Edinburgh. During his forty-year career, he led studies into the danger of desertification presented by the encroaching Sahara.

Jungle Byways In India: Leaves From The Notebook Of A Sportsman And A Naturalist by Edward Percy Stebbing (1911) Free eBook

The Diary Of A Sportsman Naturalist In India by Edward Percy Stebbing (1920). Part I describes sport in the big game jungles of India. Part II describes game protection and the provision of sanctuaries for the preservation of the Indian fauna. An interesting look at the enormous scale of the hunting practices of 80 years ago and the later endeavours to set up protected areas. Free eBook

Stalks In The Himalaya: Jottings Of A Sportsman-Naturalist by Edward Percy Stebbing (1912) recounts hunts after goral and hungal, bear in the Tisa valley, serow and tahr in the highlands of Sikkim, and ibex and markhor in Baltistan.

Martin Stephens

Novice's Luck Or Some Sporting Sprints by Martin Stephens (1936) is a real blend of sporting adventures, including the author's hunt for mountain goat, elk and moose in the Canadian Rockies; trout fishing; foxhunting; stalking red stags in the Highlands; riding; and shooting pheasants and waterfowl. Of Asian interest is a chapter on pig sticking near Khanpur in India's United Provinces, and tiger and sambur shooting in the Central Provinces.

Fair Game: The Open Air Of Four Continents by Martin Stephens (1936). Hunting adventures with big game on four continents. Also the author deprecates the coming of luxury safaris where indiscrimate hunting and motor cars were ruining African sport.

Col A E Stewart

Tiger And Other Game: The Practical Experiences Of A Soldier Shikari In India by Col A E Stewart (1927). Written as a guide to big game hunting in the Indian jungle for officers of limited means by the CO of the 3/10th Baluch Regiment. He said, "Every officer in the regiment should be able to say he has shot a tiger, panther and a bear." The shooting is punctuated by extended observations of all aspects of jungle life. "Go into the jungle with a true sporting instinct to study the life of the 'jungle folk' - really study it. Learn the ways, the habits and the cunning, not only of big animals, but of the monkeys, vultures, buzzards, falcons, peafowl, jungle fowl, martens, weasels, stoats and even of the insects". Leopards, tigers, bears, monkeys, crocodiles, deer of various kinds, panther, bison and many others. Two chapters on preserving skins, one chapter on "duck, geese, partridge, quail, snipe, sand-grouse etc". Includes a chapter on faconry in India with basic instructions on how to go about it for the beginner.

Ludwig Henry Otto Stobbe

Hunting In Persia by Ludwig Henry Otto Stobbe (1963). Self-published memoir of Dr. Stobbe's experiences as an American medical missionary in Iran from 1950 to 1953, where he hunted boars, gazelles, tigers, pheasants and wild sheep. Strobbe intersperses his hunting tales with observations concerning traditional Persian culture, history and accounts of his interactions with the Iranian people.

Colonel V M Stockley

Colonel Vesey Mangles Stockley (d. 1921) served with the 2nd Bengal Cavalry in India. He was killed by a buffalo while hunting in Uganda and is buried in Kampala.

Big Game Shooting In India, Burma And Somaliland by Colonel V M Stockley (1913) provides information on how to hunt tiger, including his preferences to standing in a machan rather than sitting. Includes hunting bear, gaur and elephant in Burma. There are chapters on stalking yak in Tibet, ibex in Kashmir and a variety of deer including sambur, barasingh and spotted deer. There is also a chapter on pigsticking.

P D Stracey

Patrick Donald Stracey (1906 - 1988) was an officer of the Forest Department of the Government of Assam. He took charge as Conservator of Forests, Government of Assam in 1947, the day India got independence and left office in 1955.

Elephant Gold by P D Stracey (1963). This book provides a narrative of the author's experiences in capturing, noosing and doctoring of Indian elephants and analyses the animal for conservationists. It explains that the elephant has had a unique cultural association with the people of India for over 4000 years.

Reade: Elephant Hunter by P D Stracey (1967). An account of Lovell Reade's experiences as an elephant hunter in pursuit of rogues in the Khasi and Jaintia Hills of Assam, India. Stracey calls Reade 'the Jim Corbett of the elephants'. Lovell Reade (b.1890) shot his first elephant in 1928 and the last in 1967 at the age of 76 years. He killed in all 220 elephants in 40 years, most of which were dangerous bull elephants. He never hunted any animals for sport. He also hunted 7 tigers and about a dozen leopards.

Arthur W Strachan

Mauled By A Tiger: Encounters In The Indian Jungles by Arthur W Strachan (1933) with a foreword by Lord Hardinge of Penshurst, himself a seasoned tiger hunter. Illustrated in colour from miniature paintings on ivory by the author after loss of his arm in a tiger attack.

Richard L Sutton

Tiger Trails In Southern Asia by Richard L Sutton (1926) is the account of a sporting expedition to French Indo-China (Vietnam) where the author hunted tigers along the Lagna River west of Saigon, and elephant in the Annam jungles.
More hunting books by Richard L Sutton

John Swaffham

Netting Tigers In The Jungle by John Swaffham (1902) Extract from The Wide World Magazine. This is a description of a curious method employed by certain tribes in India for capturing tigers. Nets are placed at certain points in the jungle and tigers driven into them.

John Symington

John Symington (b.1870) was a Scottish born medical doctor who worked on a tea plantation in northern India, in charge of the health and welfare of hundreds of plantation workers under British ownership. He spent most of his spare time in big game hunting, especially for tiger and leopard.

In A Bengal Jungle: Stories Of Life On The Tea Gardens Of Northern India by John Symington (1935). Hair raising stories of a doctor who was in charge of a large tea plantation in Bengal. Plenty of hunting, including the tiger and the leopard and other game.

Wallace Taber

Tiger By The Tale: With Rod, Rifle And Camera, Bow And Boat Into Mexico, Hawaii And India by by Wallace Taber (1964). Illustrated with numerous full-page photos documenting the exploits of the author, best known for his Wally Taber Safari Shows.
Wallace Taber's African hunting safari books

Mary Linley Taylor

The Tiger's Claw: The Life-Story Of East Asia's Mighty Hunter by Mary Linley Taylor (1956). This is the true story of Yura (George) Mihailovich Yankovsky - the most famous tiger hunter from South Asia, prepared after an extensive research and based on the hunter's own book 'My Fifty Years of Tiger Hunting'.

William Hogarth Todd

Tiger, Tiger! by William Hogarth Todd (1927) are terrific tiger hunting tales as experienced by the author while stationed in India. Also it includes the hunting of other big game including the panther.

Work, Sport And Play: An Englishman's Life In India Before The War by William Hogarth Todd (1928). Pigsticking, polo and work on irrigation schemes.

Experience by William Hogarth Todd (1935) is about the travel experiences of William Hogarth Todd in India, Vienna and elsewhere. He describes life in India at the beginning of the 20th century.

Colonel G H Trevor

Colonel George Herbert Trevor (1840 - 1927) was a British engineer with the Rajputana Rifles and the agent to the Governor General of India. A reservoir known as Trevor's Tank was constructed by Maharajdhiraj Maharao Kesari Singhji Bahadur of Sirohi in 1897 in his memory.

Some Curiosities Of Tiger Hunting by Colonel G H Trevor (1898) Extract from The Wide World Magazine. The author's recollections of incidents and adventures tiger hunting in India.

Major W Troup

Major Walter Troup (1869 – 1940) was an English first-class cricketer who was born in India. He was a member of the inaugural All-India team. He became District Superintendent of Police in the North-West Provinces of India and in the war he was a captain in the Royal Flying Corps.

Sporting Memories: My Life As Gloucestershire County Cricketer, Rugby And Hockey Player And Member Of Indian Police Service by Major W Troup (1924). Of particular interest maybe the author's memories of his time in India when as a keen hunter. He recalls his efforts after tiger with little success and the time he accompanied the then Prince of Wales on more successful shoots in 1905.

Maurice Tulloch

The All In One Shikar Book: An Everyday Guide To Field Sports In India by Maurice Tulloch (c.1950) is a comprehensive book on big and small game-shooting in India. Includes chapters on tools of the trade for small game, shotgun shooting, partridges, snipes, duck, teal and geese. Hunting, tracking and driving big game, tiger, panther, bear, wolf, antelopes, crocodiles and gazelles.

Lt Col Richard Tyacke

Lt Col Richard Tyacke (1849 - 1927) was married to Isabella Tyacke (Mrs Richard Tyacke), who wrote her own book on hunting bears in India.

The Sportsman's Manual: In Quest Of Game In Kullu, Lahoul, And Ladak, To the Tso Morari Lake, With Notes On Shooting In Spiti, Bara Bagahal, Chamba, And Kashmir, And A Detailed Description Of Sport In More Than 130 Nalas by Lt Col Richard Tyacke (1893)

A E Ward

Sportsman's Guide To Kashmir And Ladak &c. by A E Ward (1887) is a useful guide for tourist sportsmen in the game laws and selecting a shikar in these areas of India. Free eBook

Geoff & Diane Ward

Tiger Wallahs: Encounters With The Men Who Tried To Save The Greatest Of The Great Cats by Geoff & Diane Ward (1993). Stories of several men who tried to save the Royal Bengal Tiger in India including Jim Corbett.

Major-General A E Wardrop

Alexander Ernest Wardrop (1872 - 1961) served in the British Army and became a General in the 1930s. He was commissioned into the Royal Artillery and served in the First World War. He became Quartermaster-General for India in 1930 and General Officer Commanding-in-Chief for Northern Command in 1933. He retired in 1937.

Days And Nights With Indian Big Game by Major-General A E Wardrop (1923) is an account of hunting big game in India with the emphasis on tiger shooting. He also hunts buffalo, bear, elephant, panther, bison, barasingha, four-horned antelope, chital and sambar deer. Free eBook

Modern Pig-Sticking by Major-General A E Wardrop (1914) is a detailed work on pig-sticking including the natural history of the wild pig in India, training a horse, pig hunting and the hunts and clubs. Wardrop claims to have killed between 700 and 800 boar. Some chapters are wriiten by Major-General J Vaughan, Col F W Caton Jones, M M Crawford and Col H E Medlicott. Free-eBook

Thomas W Webber

The Forests Of Upper India: And Their Inhabitants by Thomas W Webber (1902) is a collection of personal recollections by the author of years spent, mostly in the forests of Upper India, principally in the Himalayas and North-West and Central Provinces. As a forest surveyor and deputy conservator of forests, he was able to combine his work with sport-hunting for yak and ovis. In the introduction of the book, Thomas Webber reveals his disapproval of the wholesale slaughter of game by some Europeans in the forests of India. He hopes the forests will long remain a true paradise for true sportsman. There are chapters on hunting tiger and leopard. Free eBook

Caspar Whitney

Caspar William Whitney (1864 - 1929) was an American author, editor, explorer, outdoorsman, war correspondent and big game hunter.

Jungle Trails And Jungle People: Travel, Adventure And Observation In The Far East by Caspar Whitney (1905). Travel and hunting in Siam, Sumatra, India and Malaya. After elephant, buffalo, wild cattle, rhino, tiger, wild boar, seladang, leopard and more. Free eBook

Wilhelm, The German Crown Prince

Friedrich Wilhelm Victor Augustus Ernest (1882 - 1951) was the last Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Prussia and the German Empire.

From My Hunting Day-Book by The Crown Prince of the German Empire (1912). Big game hunting in various parts of India and on the mountains, for tiger and ibex, in addition to elephant hunting in Ceylon. Free eBook

William, Prince Of Sweden

Prince Wilhelm of Sweden and Norway (1884 - 1965) was the second son of King Gustav V of Sweden.

In The Lands Of The Sun: Notes And Memories Of A Tour In The East by William, Prince of Sweden (1915). Much on big-game hunting for buffalo, leopard, tiger in Malaya, Siam and India. Free eBook

Captain Thomas Williamson

Captain Thomas Williamson (1790 - 1815) was a British officer in the East India Company and served in Bengal for 20 years. An accomplished amateur artist, his sketches were then worked up into drawings by Samuel Howitt and engraved for publication.

Oriental Field Sports 1819 by Captain Thomas Williamson (1819). The field sports - hunting, shooting and fishing - that they enjoyed at home were also essential to the expatriate lifestyle of the gentlemen who ran the British Empire. The abundant opportunities for hunting big game and other exotic species meant that many well-known sportsmen made their reputations on the plains and in hills of India, Burma and Ceylon. The book will be of interest both to natural historians as well as to hunters, containing natural history and the hunting of the elephant, rhinoceros, tiger, leopard, bear, deer, buffalo, wolf, wild hog, jackal, wild dog and civet.

David Wilson

Anecdotes Of Big Cats And Other Beasts by David Wilson (1910). Selected chapters include - Sherlock Holmes in a Wood; Where Tigers Flourish; The Girl and the Tigress; A Lesson from the Water Buffalo; A Nest of Crocodiles; The Leopard as a Killer of Men; On Heads in General; The Big Pet Cat; The Leopard that needed a Dentist; The Gallant Leopard; Solidarity among the Brutes; Charlie Darwin, or the Lady-Gibbon; The Brief Biography of a Little Bear; A Chinese Hunter(740 BC). "The author of this work has long been resident in Ragoon, and he has some very entertaining yarns to tell." Free eBook

Big Cats: Stories Of Tigers And Leopards by David Wilson (no date) details hunts for tiger and leopards in Burma during the late 19th and early 20th century.

Sir Guy Fleetwood Wilson

Sir Guy Douglas Arthur Fleetwood Wilson (1851 - 1940) was a British civil servant who served in India.

Letters To Nobody: 1908 To 1913 by Sir Guy Fleetwood Wilson (1921) features the author's hunting exploits in India, Nepal and Burma from 1908 to 1913 while stationed in India as a Civil Servant. Big game hunting in the Terai, Nepal, Kashmir, Bombay, Madras, Travancore, Assam, Sundarbans and Pondichery for elephant, tiger, leopard, bison, the Indian rhino and other game. There is a chapter on hunting with the Governor and tiger hunter Sir John Hewett in Kumaon.

Letters To Somebody: A Retrospect by Sir Guy Fleetwood Wilson (1922). "I have addressed these letters to Somebody in the hope that Somebody will read them. I make no pretence of having written a book. All I have attempted to do has been to put on paper some recollections of a rather hard life and of a somewhat strenuous career." Free eBook

Dean Witter

Dean G Witter (1887 - 1969) was an American businessman who co-founded Dean Witter & Company, which became the largest investment house on the West Coast. He was a keen hunter, fisherman and outdoorsman.

Shikar by Dean Witter (1961). The author's experience hunting tigers in India in 1961.
For Dean Witter's African safari book

Lt Col H S Wood

Lt Colonel Henry Stotesbury Wood (1865 - 1956) was a British medical doctor, born in India and educated in Britain. He served with the Indian Medical service before taking civilian medical posts in India. He was a keen big game hunter and fisherman.

Shikar Memories: A Record Of Sport And Observation In India And Burma by Lt Col H S Wood (1934). Big Game Hunting in India and Burma. The author's bag includes tiger (man-eaters too), leopard, elephant, serow, blackbuck, bison, tsine, bear, wild boar, manipur deer, barking deer, swamp deer, chital, thamin, sambar, hog deer and other game, as well as fishing in the mountain rivers and streams in the Himalayas and Burma.

Glimpses Of The Wild: An Observer's Notes And Anecdotes On The Wild Life Of Assam by Lt Col H S Wood (1936) concentrates on animals that might be encountered without exceptional difficulty. He also includes many interesting hunting anecdotes - his attempt to beat a gharial to death with an oar or taking a shot, with no apparent effect, at one on the Kopoli river regarded as a god and invincible to bullets.

Milestones Of Memory: A Plain Tale Of Service, Sport And Travel In The East And West by Lt Col H S Wood (1950). Memoirs of a retired army officer from his childhood in India, schooldays at King William's College, Indian army days, time in Mesopotamia and Switzerland with much on bird-watching and natural history.

Major-General Nigel Woodyatt

Major-General Nigel Gresley Woodyatt (1861 - 1936) commenced his military career aged 22 in the Cheshire Militia. He joined the troop ship 'Malabar' in December, 1883 heading for Peshawar to join the Second Cheshires. He went on to serve with the 7th Gurkhas.

My Sporting Memories: Forty Years With Note-Book And Gun by Major-General Nigel Woodyatt (1923) contains much on hunting tigers and leopards in India.

Under Ten Viceroys: The Reminiscences Of A Gurkha by Major-General Nigel Woodyatt (1922) is an account of the auther's military service in India under ten Viceroys starting with the Marquis of Ripon who assumed charge in 1880 and ending with Lord Reading in 1921. Free eBook

Quinton Wright

Sporting Stories: 1. A Brush with Elephants 2. The Senator's Tiger 3. A Ride On A Rhino by Quinton Wright (1908) 3 Part Article Extract from The Wide World Magazine.

Gordon Young

Gordon Young (1927 - 1916) was born in China, the son of American missionary parents who worked there. He spent his childhood among the Lahu people in Burma and North India. Over his lifetime he spent some forty years in South and Southeast Asia and was known as a naturalist, hunter and ethnologist, in addition to being a writer. With his father, Harold Mason Young, he founded the Chiang Mai Zoo in Thailand.

Tracks Of An Intruder by Gordon Young (1967) is an account of how an American naturalist gained recognition as a master hunter receiving the highest honour of 'Supreme Hunter' from the Lahu people of south-east Asia. To gain this accolade, Young had to kill at least one each of six male 'killer' animals while they attacked or rampaged - gaur, bear, leopard, tiger, wild boar and elephant.

Various Authors

The Sporting Almanac For 1841. Hunting tiger, giraffe, buffalo, stag, mountain fox hunt, wood-cock shooting, bull fighting, leistering salmon and archery.

The Hoghunters Annual by Capt H Nugent et al (1928). Volume 1 is the very first edition of this publication on pigsticking in India. The editors hoped that as a publication it will grow and "serve to remind all old pigstickers of some of the best days of their lives".