Game Animals of India, etc. 



able, for although a tiger may well sever the hock-tendons 

 of a gaur by biting, it seems difficult to understand 

 how it could break by this method the lower ends of 

 the two leg-bones immediately above the hock. If 

 there is direct evidence of this being done the fact 

 must be accepted ; but if there is not, Dr. Blanford's 

 supposition that the attack is made by a blow from the 

 paw would seem more probable. 



A remarkable, and apparently inexplicable difference 

 between tigers and leopards is exhibited by the manner 

 in which they break up their prey ; a tiger invariably 

 commencing to devour his victim at the hind-quarters, 

 whereas a leopard turns his attention at the commence- 

 ment of his meal to the chest and fore-quarters. 



In the condition of their food tigers are by no 

 means particular, and they have been observed gorging 

 on putrid carcases, from which the vultures have been 

 driven away by their appearance on the scene. In 

 many cases, they will consume almost the whole of 

 the animal which affords the meal, rejecting neither 

 skin nor bones, except such of the latter as are too 

 large or too solid to be devoured. Neither do they 

 limit themselves to any particular kinds of animal as 

 food, for tigers have been known to kill and eat bears, 

 leopards, and even individuals of their own species. 

 Colonel F. T. Pollok states, for instance, that he has 

 known of cases in Assam where, after a contest between 

 two of these animals, the victor has made a meal off 

 the body of the vanquished. An instance is also 

 known of a tiger having killed a young individual of 

 its own species over a dead bullock, and eaten the 

 former in preference to the latter. One reason for 

 regarding the tiger as more active and powerful than 

 the lion is that on every occasion when a contest 

 has taken place in a menagerie between two of these 

 animals, the tiger has come off victorious. 



Man-eating tigers, which are generally females, are 

 perhaps the most wary of all the members of the species. 



304 



