MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 659 



The tiger was well known in the district as a troublesome fellow, who 

 held up travellers and bullock carts from time to time. His nasty temper is 

 perhaps not to be wondered at, seeing that he had such a " thorn in the 

 flesh." 



J. G. RIDLAND. 



Bombay, 19th February 1919. 



ii 



No. III.— SIZE OF TIGERS. 



On reading Col. R. W. Burton's tiger notes from the Oriental Magazine 

 I looked up my Volumes of Oriental Magazine from 1830-1833 and found 

 A. Mull " gives measurements of a tiger, killed by him and Capt. D — in 

 Khanded as 12'-2" when dried and ll'-9" shortly after death, also of a 

 tigress of 9'-8" and a panther of 9'. Any tiger in that or the Ajunta coiantry 

 was in 1829 considered small if under 10'-9". A pity they did not give 

 the weights. " Lowry Todd" says in 1832 that he had seen about 100 

 skins of tigers in the Mahratta Country and measured many just after 

 death and none was over 9'-5" in length. He also asks if there is any truth 

 in the popular idea of a tiger's age being told by the number of lobes in his 

 liver and says that he found a big old tiger with 12 lobes, an old tigress 

 with eleven lobes, a young tiger had 7 lobes and a cub 4 lobes. Has this 

 been tested by any of your readers ? 



R. LIGHT, Lt.-Col. 

 Hastings, England, 



16th October 1918. 



Xo. IV.— TIGRESS {FELIS TIGRES) ATTACKING A SLOTH BEAR 



(MELUESUS UHSINUS). 



On the night of the 10th of this month a tigress and cubs killed one of 

 my kills in a nullah, and I sat up with a friend. It was a bright moon- 

 light night. About 7-30 we suddenly heard an appalling noise about 150 

 yards away on our right and behind us. It sounded like two tigers 

 lighting. Then we saw a bear coming hurrying and stumbling along the 

 nullah from our right. It was gasping for breath, and when it got just in 

 front of up on the opposite bank of the nullah, it suddenly uttered a roar 

 and jumped round, as bears do when they think something is attacking 

 them. I thought the tigress must be following, so I advised my friend not 

 to shoot. The bear now went on a few yards, and sat down to get breath, 

 gasping and occasionally moaning. Then it went off towards our left, still 

 muttering and complaining, and unfortunately for itself crossed the nullah 

 into the jungle behind us. Suddenly the uproar commenced again, and it 

 was obvious that the tigress had gone for the pour old bear again. The 

 howls of the bear, and the roars of the tigress went off through the forest, 

 and gradually faded away in the distance. After they had died away 

 1 heard tho plaintive calls of what I thought at the time were bear cubs, 

 but which might have been tiger cubs, going off in the same direction. 

 The tigress never came back to the kill. 1 have heard of tigers killing 

 bears, but I suppose I shall never be so near seeing the performance as 

 I was on the night of which I write. 



J. A. DUKE, D.s.p. 



Nimar, 4th March 1919. 

 43 



