THE TIGER 387 



drag on the ground, at least at intervals, yet it is quite certain that he can carry it. 

 Thus, Mr. Sanderson relates how a powerful tiger had taken up and carried the 

 carcass of a bullock through a dense thicket for about three hundred yards ; while a 

 smaller tigress carried one in open jungle for a shorter distance. As a general rule, 

 however, the bodies are dragged along the ground ; although this, when the nature 

 of the surface in Indian jungles is taken into account, is a sufficiently formidable 

 task. 



Forsyth considered it probable that a cattle-killing tiger destroyed a victim 

 about every fifth day ; three days being employed in feasting on the carcass and 

 resting in the intervals, while during the other two food was not specially sought. 

 This, when we remember the number of these animals in certain parts of India, will 

 give some idea of the losses they occasion. According to a return issued by the Gov- 

 ernment, it appears that in the Madras Presidency, during the quarter ending De- 

 cember 3ist, 1891, the number of animals killed by tigers and leopards included 656 

 bullocks, 752 cows, 236 calves, 135 buffaloes, 105 sheep, and 103 goats. In the 

 returns for all India for one year, during which 1,835 cattle were killed, the total 

 loss was set down at a little short of 60,000 head, of which 20,000 were assigned to 

 tigers, and an equal number to leopards. Although the man-eating tiger is much 

 more dreaded, the cattle-lifting tiger is regarded with supreme indifference by 

 the herdsmen of the districts it infests. "It is no uncommon feat," observes a 

 well-known popular writer, " for a party of jungle herdsmen armed only with their 

 iron-bound lathis, or quarterstaves, to boldly show fight to the royal robber, and 

 by sheer pluck and gallant daring beat him off from some member of their herd 

 that he may have attacked. Too frequently, to be sure, some one or more of the 

 number may pay dearly for their temerity, but it is an apt illustration of the fact 

 that men get inured to a commonly-incurred danger." Mr. Blanford mentions that 

 he once came across two children, of which the elder was not more than eight or 

 nine years of age, who had actually been placed in the jungle as a guard over the 

 dead body of a bullock, to protect it from the return visit of the tiger by which it 

 had been slain. 



It has been considered that man-eating tigers, which generally belong to the 

 female sex, were invariably animals unable to procure other food, from the effects 

 of age. Although this is true in a very large number of instances, it appears that 

 tigers may take to man-eating from a variety of other causes. Thus either wounds, 

 excessive fat, or the fact of a tigress having had to bring up a family of cubs where 

 food is scarce, may be the original cause of the adoption of this mode of life. 

 According to Mr. Sanderson, all man-eaters were invariably at first cattle stealers, 

 which gradually became accustomed to the sight and presence of man, and thus lost 

 their instinctive fear of the human race. When once a tiger has taken to man- 

 eating, and has discovered how easily its victims are killed, it appears that it ever 

 afterwards hunts the same kind of prey, although only some individuals confine 

 themselves to this kind of food. Those tigers which are entirely or mainly man- 

 eaters inflict fearful havoc on the unfortunate natives among whom they have taken 

 up their quarters ; an average native of India, as Sir Samuel Baker remarks, form- 

 ing by no means a hearty meal for a tiger. 



