THE BIOGRAPHY OF A TIGER 



y ""^HERE is an idea prevalent among many 



people that the India of the olden day has 



long since passed away, that her wild beasts 



M have gradually disappeared, until now, save 



in the wildest parts of the remote interior, the tiger, 



that splendid feline of world-wide fame and interest, is 



seldom heard or seen outside the bars of some prison cage. 



And if one should be so rash as to hint that the " royal " 



beast is still known to wander within reach of a latter-day 



civilisation, his almost certain reward is a glance of pity 



or a shrug of pious reprobation, that in these up-to-date 



times he should have the hardihood to foist such ancient 



travellers' tales on an enlightened public. 



The traveller new to the shiny East, or the raw recruit 

 for her public services, who, pyjama-clad, stands curious- 

 eyed at the taffrail of the incoming mail-steamer, regard- 

 ing the wondrous colouring of an Indian dawn as it spreads 

 its green suffusion behind the dark line of the Western 

 Ghats, and touches the waking city and calm waters of 

 the harbour of Bombay with opalescent tints, will probably 

 dismiss with a smile of scepticism some fleeting day-dream 

 of Indian jungles and tigers amid those very hills before 

 him. Later on, as the mail-train labours upward towards 

 the frowning line, of those serrated ghats, and a dis- 

 appointingly dry jungle of teak saplings and other bare- 

 twigged trees succeeds the palm-fringed-lagoon-winding 

 country of highly Eastern appearance, through which he 



5 



