150 BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 



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tiger, and I have often mentioned the fact in conversation from time to time. 

 For several weeks before we saw elie dead body r the natives had reported that 

 there was a black tiger which infested the range of hills behind the military 

 cantonments at Chittagong. More than onee r whea the hearclsman brought 

 word that it had killed a cow, Captain Swjitman sent an elephant and howdak 

 for me, and we beat through the jungle in vain for it. Probably our tactics 

 were bad as we invariably went right up to the body of the murdered cow, and 

 the tiger sneaked off on hearing the noise of the elephants into the extensive 

 and impenetrable coverts. We did not attach any importance to the native 

 statement that the tiger was black, as we supposed that this was merely an 

 exaggeration. So also, when a report came in through the native police that a 

 manhad been killed by a blaek tiger in a large village about three miles to the 

 southof the hills behind the cantonments we supposed that the epithet " black" 

 was only a fanciful description of the animal. When r howevey r we had seen the 

 black skin of the dead tiger, we concluded that the native authorities had not 

 been drawing on their imagination when they used the epithet " black." 



I cannot ventiue to offer any explanation why this tiger's skin was black. 

 It is well known that there is considerable difference of colous in the skins of 

 ordinary tigers-. Some skins have almost a light yellow ground, whilst in 

 others the colour approaches- to a dark chestnut-red. Some people attribute 

 this variety of colour to the character of the jungle in which the animals have- 

 lived, and this has a sort of probability in it ; but the age of the tiger may 

 have also something to say to it, and a beast which was of a dark red in its- 

 prime may turn to a lighter colour when it grows old. It was my good 

 fortune during the last forty years to see many move tigers, both wild and in 

 eaptivity, than falls to the lot of most men in Bengal. I can testify that on 

 the churs of the Ganges and Brahnmpootra, when shooting during the hofe 

 winds in the end of March, through the remains of the burnt grass and 

 charred stalks, that the animals seemed to vanish before our eyes. Many 

 authorities have written that the skin of a man-eating tiger is usually mangy and 

 dull in colour. There were two man-eating tigers caught and sent to the 

 Calcutta Zoo, whose skins were in perfect condition and of a rich colour. 

 There wasafine tigress abotvt five years old with a clean and well-marked skin r 

 whose career I had to cut short, as she had taken to preying on the villagers- 

 ©f a place near Dacca ; so that these cases were exceptions to a general rule. 

 But I have no doubt that it is quite true than many old and mangy tigers, with 

 decaying teeth and claws, become man-eaters. The reason is simple. A human 

 being is the in< i st facile prey for a tiger. One grip on the slight neck of a 

 woman and all is over. There is no striking with pointed horns or kicking with 

 sharp hoofs, as the tiger finds when he is killing a deer or a cow. And who 

 shall say whether a healthy young woman is more tender and wholesome food 

 than the rlesh of a sickly old coiv, half-starved in the jungle ?— C. T. 

 BuckLand, F.Z.S., in The Field. 



NOTE ON A TALKING BULBUL. 

 It is well known that the common, or Madras Bnlbnl, as ie called (Pycnonotus 

 , irrho/ix), makes a veryamusing pet, and is held in high estimation by some of 

 tbe oat i'Tes of the country, especially the M ussulmans, for its pugnacious qualities 



