514 CARNIVORA 



& 



ground in the vicinity of a village or gowrie, continue its ravages, 

 destroying one or two cows or buffaloes a Aveek. It is very fond of 

 the ordinary domestic cattle, which in the plains of India are 

 generally weak, half-starved, under-sized creatures. One of these 

 is easily struck down and carried or dragged off. The smaller 

 buffaloes are also easily disposed of ; but the buffalo bulls, and 

 especially the wild ones, are formidable antagonists, and have 

 often been known to beat the Tiger off, and even to wound him 

 seriously." 



In many districts of India the number of Tigers has been very 

 considerably diminished of late years. In some other countries 

 they appear, however, to be on the increase ; thus according to 

 one of the administration reports of Java laid before the Dutch 

 Chambers, portions of that island are being depopulated through 

 Tigers. In 1882 the population of a village in the south-west of 

 the Bantam province was removed and transferred to an island off 

 the coast in consequence of the trouble caused to the people by 

 Tigers. These animals have now become an intolerable pest in 

 parts of the same province. The total population is about GOO, 000, 

 and, in 1887, sixty-one were killed by Tigers, and in consequence 

 of the dread existing among the people, it has been proposed to 

 deport the inhabitants of the villages most threatened to other 

 parts of the country where Tigers are not so common, and where 

 they can pursue their agricultural occupations with a greater 

 degree of security. At present they fear to go anywhere near 

 the borders of the forest. The people seem disinclined, or they 

 lack the means and courage, to attack and destroy their enemy, 

 although considerable rewards are offered by Government for the 

 destruction of beasts of prey. In 1888 the reward for killing a 

 Royal Tiger was raised to two hundred florins. It appears also that 

 the immunity of the Tiger is in part due to superstition, for it is 

 considered wrong to kill one unless he attacks first or otherwise 

 does injury 



The Leopard (F. pardus, Fig. 226), although belonging to the 

 same restricted group as the two preceding species, is distinguished 

 from both by its inferior size, and its coloration. The animal 

 now commonly known as the Leopard was called Pard (TrdpSos and 

 -a'pSaAis) or Panther (irdvdi)p) by the ancients. Leopard (leo-pardus) 

 is a later term, originally applied, it is believed, to the Cheeta or 

 Hunting Leopard, upon the supposition that it was a creature 

 intermediate between the Lion and the true Pard. If so it has 

 been completely transferred to the more common species, and 

 though in this sense a perfectly unnecessary and unmeaning term, 

 has gradually superseded those by which this was originally known. 

 Pard, so commonly used by Elizabethan authors, is now nearly 

 obsolete in the English language, and Panther has either become 



