THE TIGER 383 



such tenant. Moreover, in the plains of India, wherever tigers are met with, there 

 will wild peafowl invariably be found. 



Tigers are extremely impatient of the fierce heat of the dry season, and always 

 try to shelter themselves as much as possible from the burning rays of the sun. 

 This impatience of extreme heat, taken in conjunction with their occurrence in com- 

 paratively cool climates, like those of Northern China, Manchuria, and parts of 

 Siberia, where the winters are severe, is in favor of the view of Mr. Blanford, 

 already mentioned, that these animals are comparatively recent immigrants into a 

 large portion of India. To aid in mitigating the heat of the dry season, tigers are 

 in the habit of wallowing in the shallow water of swamps and the margins of rivers, 

 and then rolling in the dry sand after their mud bath. Such, at any rate, are their 

 habits in the plains of Bengal, Assam, etc. ; but it has been stated that on the 

 Nilgiri hills in Southern India, tigers are never known to wallow in this manner. 

 Not only does the tiger indulge in such wallowings during the hot season, but he is 

 also an excellent swimmer, and will take readily to the water. In the Bramaputra, 

 where reedy and grassy islands and sand banks, locally known as churs, intercept the 

 course of the river, tigers, as Sir Samuel Baker tells us, swim for miles during 

 the night from island to island in search of prey and if unsuccessful return at dawn 

 to the mainland. They likewise display very similar habits in the Bengal sandar- 

 bans, where they not unfrequently cross small arms of the sea. Sometimes they 

 are compelled to take involuntarily to the water, as in the case of the great inun- 

 dations in the valleys of the larger Indian rivers, or when tidal waves overflow 

 the low-lying lands bordering the Bay of Bengal. On such occasions the unfortu- 

 nate animals are often put to sore straits to find a refuge from the waste of 

 waters, and Sir Samuel Baker relates an instance of a tiger, during an inundation 

 on the Bramaputra, having climbed up during the night on the high rudder of a 

 vessel, much to the astonishment and alarm of the native steersman, when he beheld 

 his visitor in the morning. From this position the tiger made his way to the deck 

 of the steamer towing the barge, where he was eventually killed in the paddle box. 



In spite of its predilection for water, the tiger can, however, at a pinch endure 

 thirst for a considerable period, even in the hottest weather. As an instance of 

 this we may refer to an account given by Mr. G. P. Sanderson, where two tigers 

 were surrounded by nets in a small patch of jungle. "The weather," writes the 

 narrator, ' ' was hot ; the circle in which they were enclosed was only seventy yards 

 in diameter, and the heat of the fires kept up day and night all round was consid- 

 erable. Still they existed without a drop of water for ten days, suffering from 

 wounds half the time. A tiger can go much longer than this without food without 

 serious inconvenience." Like lions, tigers are bad climbers, ascending trees but 

 rarely, and, according to Mr. Blanford, being quite incapable of ascending a vertical 

 stem, no matter what may be its dimensions. But, when aided by a sloping stem, 

 or by a fork at some distance from the- ground into which they can spring and 

 thence obtain a fresh start, tigers will occasionally attack sportsmen who are wait- 

 ing for them in trees. It is also stated that, when caught by inundations, tigers 

 will endeavor to escape by climbing. Stems of trees, especially certain particular 

 favorites, are in tiger-haunted districts marked by the vertical scorings in the bark 



