THE TIGER. 53 



appear to breed, at the most, more frequently than once in 

 every two or three years ; and it appears that a pair, of which 

 one is a female and the other a male, is by far the most usual 

 number of cubs in a litter. It would seem, however, that a 

 far smaller proportion of males attain maturity than is the case 

 with the opposite sex, since in India adult Tigresses are vastly 

 more numerous than are Tigers. 



As mentioned above, it is not uncommon for Tigresses, when 

 pressed or nearly starved, to kill, and even occasionally to devour, 

 their offspring. Tigers, however, appear to kill the cubs still 

 more frequently, and without adequate reason. Although can- 

 nibalism appears to be rare, the following instance is recorded 

 by Colonel W. Scott in the " Journal of the Bombay Natural 

 History Society " for 1892. The Colonel writes that on the 

 17th of April in that year he received news "of a Tigress and 

 two fine cubs on a small hill about three miles from my camp, 

 and going out with a friend we had a beat for her, and she was 

 duly shot. The cubs did not appear in the beat at all, but I 

 ascertained from some Bhils that they were about the size of 

 Panthers, and so thinking them too small to be shot at, and too 

 large to be caught alive, we determined to leave them alone, 

 although a congregation of chattering Monkeys round some 

 rocks, half way up the hill, showed very plainly where they 

 were. On the 22nd, my shikari sent in word that he had 

 marked down a Tiger in the same place in which the Tigress 

 had been found. I started as soon as I could collect men for 

 a beat, and at the first sound of music out came the Tiger 

 straight for the place where I was posted, giving me an ex- 

 cellent shot. My shikari coming along with the beaters, when 

 he reached the place where he had marked the Tiger down, 

 went to have a look at it, and in a sort of hollow under a rock 

 close by, he came on a dead Tiger-cub, evidently killed that 

 morning, of which the whole of the right hind leg and quar- 



