210 DIARY OF A SPORTSMAN NATURALIST 



throat or strikes it down with the powerful forearm, the 

 nails lacerating the flesh. In the case of larger animals, 

 such as the buffalo, his procedure is different. To approach 

 alongside would be to court injury or death from the horns 

 of the beast. The tiger therefore comes from behind and 

 springs upon the animal, bringing it to earth by the sheer 

 force of his pace and weight, his claws scoring down the 

 withers whilst his fangs are fixed in the neck which he 

 wrenches backward in order to break it. This mode of attack 

 is usually successful but it requires a nicety of calculation 

 and approach, for if the tiger does not land in exactly the 

 right position on the animal's back, a beast so powerful 

 as the buffalo will shake off the hold, and there is then either 

 a battle royal or more commonly the tiger slinks away. For 

 a tiger must entirely depend on the full play of his several 

 parts, in fact, on bodily perfection, to secure his daily food 

 and consequently dreads an injury which may mean slow 

 starvation ; unless driven to desperation by hunger he 

 never takes unwarrantable risks. 



A panther seizes its victim by the throat, worrying it to 

 death in this fashion, four deep holes being left by the canine 

 teeth. 



The wounds received by a man when attacked by a tiger, 

 usually after the latter has been wounded and the animal 

 gets to close quarters, are very serious. The tiger bites deep, 

 and in addition the claws score deeply into the flesh. The 

 teeth and claws of the tiger are poisonous and gangrene 

 sets in rapidly, resulting in death. Should only a limb be 

 affected, by removing the attacked portion within a short 

 space the poison may be prevented from spreading to the 

 rest of the system. Sticks of caustic should be carried by 

 sportsmen and the wounds immediately washed and treated 

 with them. 



The leopard, other than the man-eater, if he gets home 

 after being wounded and mauls a man does not usually bite, 

 the wounds being chiefly claw marks. These wounds are 

 not generally fatal and the man recovers. In fact men have 

 had hand-to-hand encounters with leopards and have even 

 killed such by throttling them with their hands, and 

 recovered from the wounds received. But they rarely have 

 the same health afterwards. The golden rule should be to 

 reduce the risk of ever getting mauled by the carnivora 

 by being always suitably armed. 



