170 MamMaLia OF INDIA. 
wanderings they come to a suitable locality with convenience of food 
and water, they abide there, provided there be no occupant with a prior 
claim and sufficient power to dispute the intrusion. We had ample 
proof of this at Seonee. Close to the station, that.is, within a short 
ride, were several groups of hills which commanded the pasture lands of 
the town. Many a tiger has been killed there, the place of the slain. 
one being occupied ere long by another. On the other hand, if a tiger 
be accommodated with lodgings to his liking, he will stay there for 
years, roaming a certain radius, but returning to his home; and it is the 
knowledge of this that so often enables the hunter to compass his 
destruction. As long therefore as there are human habitations, with 
their usual adjuncts of herds and flocks, within a dozen miles of the 
jungle tiger's haunts, so long there will always be the transition from 
the game-killer to the cattle-lifter and the man-eater. Colour and 
striping must also be thrown out of the question, for no two individuals 
of any variety agree, and the characteristics of shade and marking are 
common to all kinds. The only reliable data therefore are derived 
from measurements, and from these it may be proved that the grass- 
jungle tiger of Bengal, though the longer animal, is yet inferior in all 
round measurement and probably in weight to the tiger of hilly country 
—see Mr. Shillingford’s comparison quoted by me above. Let also 
any one compare the following measurements of one given by Colonel 
Walter Campbell with a tiger “of equal length shot in the grassy plains 
of Bengal :— 
> 
in. 
Length from point of nose to end of tail . 9 5 
Ditto of tail. . : 2 10 
Height from heel to ‘shoulder . 3 2 
Extreme length from shoulder to point of toe Srrr 
From elbow to point of toe. tee 20 
Girth of body just behind the shoulder Wee & 
Ditto of forearm. , 27, 
Ditto of neck . 3,50 
Circumference of head . BIS 
This is a remarkably short-tailed tiger. If the concurrence of evi- 
dence establishes the difference beyond doubt, then we may say that 
there are two varieties in India—the hill tiger, eds tigris, var. montanus ; 
and the other, inhabiting the alluvial plains of great rivers, Me/is tigris, 
var. fluviatilis, Dr. Anderson says he has examined skulls and skins of 
those inhabiting the hill ranges of Yunnan, and can detect no difference 
from the ordinary Indian species. 
The tigress goes with young for about fifteen weeks, and produces 
from two to five at a birth. I remember once seeing four perfectly 
formed cubs, which would have been born in a day or two, cut from a 
tigress shot by my brother-in-law Col. W. B. Thomson in the hills 
