The Tiger 



comparatively recent inhabitant of the more torrid 

 portions of its habitat. In this connection may be 

 mentioned the extraordinary length and thickness of 

 the tur of Indian tiger-cubs — a provision against cold 

 totally unnecessary in their present environment, which 

 may be inherited from an ancestor whose home was 

 in the bleak north. 



Water is essential to tigers, and the necessity for 

 frequent access to this element curtails their wanderings 

 in the hot season, when pools are few and far between. 

 At other seasons tigers are, however, great wanderers ; 

 and it is noteworthy that when one tiger occupying 

 a ciefinite " beat " is killed, its place is almost immedi- 

 ately filled by a successor. Grass-jungles, swamps, 

 and forests are the resort of tigers ; but, failing these, 

 cletts or caves in rocks, ruined buildings, or dry nalas 

 afford amply sufficient shelter to the striped robber. 

 Although, like lions, tigers are unable to climb, their 

 presence in a district is made evident by the marks 

 of their claws on the tree-stems, which extend as hiorh 

 as they can reach when standing on their hind-legs. 



The falsity of the popular idea that tigers spring 

 upon their victims from a distance, and after killing 

 them by a blow from one of the fore-paws, or by 

 tearing at the throat with the claws, suck their blood, 

 was demonstrated by Mr. G. P. Sanderson, in Thirteen 

 Tears among the tVild Beasts of India. From the 

 accounts of natives the same sportsman came to the 

 conclusion that the tiger clutches the fore-quarters of 

 its victim with its paws, one of which is generally 

 thrown over the shoulder, while with the jaws it seizes 

 the throat from below, and turns it upwards and over, 

 so as to dislocate the vertebras of the neck : sometimes 

 giving additional weight to the wrench by jumping to 

 the opposite side of the stricken animal. 



This explanation was for some time generally 

 accepted ; but in a communication to the Asian news- 

 paper of July 12, 1895, ^^' F- ^- Shillingford raised 



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