The Tiger 



terrify their prey into succumbing sooner. This was 

 exemplified in the case of a planter, seated on an easy- 

 chair outside his bungalow, being startled in his reverie 

 by a loud roar to the left, and on looking round he 

 saw some 500 yards off a tiger struggling with a 

 bullock in a field. The tiger killed the bullock, and 

 retreated into the jungle before guns could be got 

 ready." 



In the Fauna of British India^ Dr. W. T. Blanford, 

 while accepting the view that tigers generally kill their 

 prey, when of large size, by breaking the neck, suggested 

 that in the case of very large beasts, like gaur and 

 buffalo, which they are unable to overthrow, they 

 occasionally hamstring them, most likely by a blow 

 from the paw, although this is not certain. Dr. Blan- 

 ford was acquainted with two instances where buffalo 

 were thus hamstrung. At a later date, in the Journal 

 of the Bombay Natural History Society^ Mr. C. W. Allan, 

 writing from Burma, stated that on several occasions 

 he has come across sambar, tsaine (Burmese bantin), 

 gaur, and domesticated buffalo that have been ham- 

 strung by tigers, the method adopted being seemingly 

 to stalk the victim and bite one of the hind-legs 

 immediately above the hock, thus severing the tendon 

 and breaking the bone, apparently by one bite. 

 Subsequently the other leg is treated in the same way, 

 after which the victim is seized by the throat and 

 killed. Although the writer referred to had never 

 apparently seen a tiger actually make this mode of 

 attack, he states that, according to native accounts, 

 it is the ordinary method by which these animals kill 

 their prey in Burma, and he asks what is the experience 

 of sportsmen in India on this point. From Mr. Allan's 

 account it may apparently be taken that tigers do, as 

 a rule, kill large game in Burma by hamstringing them, 

 while in India this method appears to be the exception 

 rather than the rule. Further information as to the 

 method in which the attack is made is, however, desir- 



303 



