MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 385 



(in March). I recollect instances of young cubs, two or three weeks old, 

 being caught in May, in July, and in December. 



I have seldom found tigers in pairs, but, as already mentioned, my expe- 

 rience has been confined to the hot weather. In one case I found tracks of a 

 tiger, day after day for some time, with which were a tigress and a large cub — 

 perhaps nearly a year old. The tiger, a large one, was going lame on one hind 

 leg, which made a track like that of a plantigrade animal. Tracking these 

 animals, I kicked open a dry dropping, and found it full of tiger's hair whilst 

 it also contained a good-sized tiger-claw. Presumably another of the species 

 had fallen a victim to the big tiger, which had been injured in the hind leg 

 in the encounter. I have heard of several similar instances of cannibalistic 

 propensities on the part of the great felines. 



Out of forty tigers which I brought to bag, there were only five pairs, 

 whilst in one other case two out of a family of three were shot. The 

 remaining twenty-eight were single animals. Perhaps they reside more in 

 pairs at other seasons of the year. In two instances the pairs were young 

 animals of perhaps three years of age, and in one case a very old pair with 

 faded coats and worn canines were said, by the inhabitants of the hamlet near 

 which they were killed, to have lived together for many years. 



It is generally said that there are more females than males of this species. 

 In my experience the males preponderate, and out of forty only fourteen were 

 tigresses. None of these had unborn cubs in them. 



As with tigers, so in the case of panthers I have comparatively seldom found 

 pairs, and have shot more males than females. I have had in my possession on 

 two occasions young cubs born in the month of December ; another cub, shot 

 in March, was probably born in December also. 



The last panther I saw— which, by the way, nearly killed me— was found to 

 contain four unborn cubs which would probably have been produced in about 

 a fortnight. This was in the middle of March. 



Bears also appear to have young at uncertain periods. In April 1889 a 

 brown bear cub {Ursus isabeUinus):about 3 weeks old was caught, and another 

 about the same age which I found in the Tilail Valley of Kashmir on the 26th 

 May. On the 30th May I came upon an old bear with two well-grown cubs, 

 which I judged to be about six months old. But could they have been born 

 during hibernation ? On 4th June, 1890, 1 shot a black bear (Ursus labiatus) in 

 the Satpuras with a cub three or four weeks old. On 25th April, 1894, I killed 

 a black bear with two cubs which could not have been less than six months of 

 age. In February, 1897, we caught two cubs a few weeks old, still riding pick- 

 aback on the mother, and next day we saw two more about six months old. 



It is frequently stated that tigers invariably commence eating their prey 

 at the haunch, and panthers at the stomach. Certainly I have never known 

 tigers begin at any other portion of the body, but panthers not infrequently 

 commence at the haunch also. The last panther I encountered had bitten 

 the tail off a large buffalo that he had killed, and had eaten a portion of the 



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