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" him, so that the odds are greatly against our striped friend's suc- 

 " cess, though, of course, he occasionally is rewarded by catching 

 " some unwary, over-thirsty animal that rushes to the water heed- 

 " less of consequences ; but this will not apply to the tiger on these 

 <; hills, where no paucity of water ever occurs to such an extent as 

 " to drive the game to any one spot to drink that the tiger's 

 " principal food is game, and here very generally that game is the 

 " sambur, there can be little question, but how he takes it is not 

 " well known and perhaps may never have been witnessed by any 

 " one ; at any rate in making these remarks I hope in case any of 

 " your readers can give an instance of such observation of a capture 

 " he will do so, I have never yet met any one who could at the 

 " same time I may relate what occurred near Kotagherry to two 

 " sportsmen who were on the watch for tigers one evening. While 

 " waiting near a sholah, they heard the grunting of a wild boar and 

 " presently observed the animal approaching, evidently in an excit- 

 " ed and angry mood ; almost at the same moment a tigress sprang 

 " through the air and alighted on the boar's back ; then took place a 

 " fierce fight, fast and furious, the boar manfully fighting for his 

 " life against his terrific antagonist ; while it was going on, one of 

 " the sportsmen fired at the tigress and the combatants separated, 

 " but the boar was heard to give that peculiar squeal during 

 " the battle which only escapes from this indomitable and sturdy 

 " animal when mortally wounded ; nevertheless, nothing could be 

 "found of either hog or /tigress on the following day, though 

 " there were traces showing that both had been wounded. As 

 " this case, however, was a sort of running fight between these 

 " animals, it cannot be quoted as a specimen of the mode in which 

 " the tiger usually captures his prey. The feline was supposed to 

 " be a tigress, because shortly afterwards, a buffaloe having been 

 " killed in the neighbourhood, one of the sportsmen alluded to sat 

 " over the carcase, and was highly amused at seeing four cubs not 

 " bigger than good sized cats, attack the dead buffaloe most 

 " furiously, at the same time spitting and swearing and fighting 

 " one with another, in the fiercest manner imaginable. 



" I have a theory of my own on this point let us ventilate 

 " it. In the first place, the tiger must have room to spring on his 



