"KILLING A MAN-EATER" 159 



The largest tigers are found amongst the habit- 

 ual cattle killers. When a tiger becomes old and 

 fat he usually settles down in some locality where 

 beef and water are plentiful, and here he lives on 

 amicable terms with the villages, killing a cow or 

 bullock about once in four or five days. 



A full grown, large tiger would have no chance 

 in a fair fight with a bull-bison ; the latter's brawny 

 throat, with its hide one and a half inches thick, 

 would afford him a difficult hold, even could he 

 attain it, and no wrench could dislocate the bison's 

 powerful neck, while the tiger would be crushed out 

 of all recognition if once caught between the ground 

 and the bison's massive forehead or forelegs. 



I have never witnessed a tiger actually seize its 

 prey, but it has been described to me by natives 

 who have seen them many times while tending cat- 

 tle. The general method is for the tiger to slink 

 up under cover of bushes or long grass ahead of 

 the cattle and to make a rush at the first cow or 

 bullock that comes within five or six yards. The 

 tiger does not "spring" upon his prey in the man- 

 ner usually represented, but clutching the bullock's 

 forequarters with his paws, one being generally 

 over the shoulder, he seizes the throat in his jaws 

 from underneath and turns it upwards and over, 

 sometimes, springing to the far side in doing so 

 to throw the bullock over and give the wrench which 

 dislocates its neck. 



The popular belief that a tiger can kill his prey 



