FELIS. 65 



It is well known that, although tigers as a rule kill their own food, 

 they do not disdain carrion ; in numerous instances they have been 

 known to eat animals killed by sportsmen and even bullocks that 

 had died of disease. Cases are even on record in which a tiger 

 that had been shot has been devoured by another of his own species. 



The ordinary game- or cattle-eating tiger is the greatest of cowards 

 in the presence of man, and often allows himself to be pelted off 

 from the animal he has seized. Sternclale mentions a case in which 

 a herdsman laid bis heavy iron-bound staff with impunity across 

 the back of a tiger who had seized one of his cows ; and I. once found 

 two young children, the eldest not more than 8 or 9 years old, 

 left in jungle to drive a tiger away from the body of a bullock 

 he had killed, and to prevent his eating it or dragging it away. 

 The half-wild inhabitants of the Indian forests have but little fear 

 of ordinary tigers ; and after some 20 years' wanderings in large 

 part through tracts infested with tigers, I agree with Forsyth 

 that, except in the haunts of a man-eater, there is little danger in 

 traversing any part of the jungles. Bears are, I think, more to be 

 feared than tigers. The only tigers not being man-eaters that are 

 dangerous are tigresses with young cubs, and occasionally a hungry 

 tiger who has just killed his prey. Of course this only refers to 

 un wounded tigers ; a tiger that has been wounded will usually 

 attack any one who approaches him, but even he will not charge 

 home against a body of men, and one successful method of shooting 

 tigers and following them when wounded is founded on this cir- 

 cumstance. 



The man-eater is, to quote Forsyth, " a tiger who has got very 

 fat and heavy, or very old, or who has been disabled by a wound, 

 or a tigress who has had to bring up young cubs where other game 

 is scarce. All these take naturally to man, who is the easiest animal 

 of all to kill, as soon as failure with other prey brings on the pangs 

 of hunger." A tiger that has once taken to man-eating will pro- 

 bably, having got over his innate fear of the human species, con- 

 tinue to live upon the same prey, though it is the exception for 

 even man-eaters to confine themselves to human food. Still a few 

 do so to a great extent, and a fearful scourge such a tiger becomes. 

 The destruction of human life by tigers is still considerable in India, 

 and the whole takes place in comparatively thinly peopled portions 

 of the country. Thus in Lower Bengal alone in six years 1860-66, 

 4218 persons were killed by these animals. In all probability 

 nearly the whole destruction was caused by a very small percentage 

 of the tigers inhabiting the country. 



Forsyth says that great grazing districts, into which cattle come 

 for a limited season only, are always the worst for producing man- 

 eating tigers. There is much reason for believing that a tigress, 

 who has taken to preying upon man, brings up her cubs to the 

 same mode of life. A man-eater generally becomes cunning and 

 suspicious beyond all ordinary tigers, and around this, the most 

 terrible of all wild animals, myths and legends centre until it is 

 difficult to know what is true and what is false. Many of the 



