THE LIVING ANIMALS OF THE WORLD 



made a great row over their meal. All of 



a sudden they all flew up, and I made certain 



it was the tiger. Then my brother fired, and 



there he was, shot right through the brain, 



lying just above the buffalo. He had been 



brought down by the noise the crows were 



making. Upon driving the sholas (small 



woods on these hills), tigers were often put 



out. Sometimes they availed themselves of 



the drive to secure food for themselves. A 



wood was being driven, when a tremendous 



grunting was heard, and out rushed an old 



boar, bristling and savage. B was about 



to raise his rifle, when a growl like thunder 



stopped him, and a great tiger with one spring 



cleared the nullah, and alighted on the back 



of the old boar. Such a battle then took 



place that, what with the growls of the tiger 



and the squeals of the boar, one might believe 



oneself in another world. I thought of nothing 



but of how to kill one or the other, or both ; 



so, as they were rolling down over and over, 



about fifty yards from me on the open hill- 

 side, I let fly both barrels. For a second or 



two the noise went on ; then the tiger jumped 



off, and the boar struggled into the nullah 



close by. The tiger pulled up, and coolly 



stared at us without moving; but his courage seemed to fail him, and he sprang into the 



nullah and disappeared." 



In most parts of India tigers are now scarce and shy, except in the preserves of the great 



rajas, and the dominions of some mighty and pious Hindu potentates, such as the Maharaja of 



Jeypur, who, being supposed to be descended from a Hindu god, allows no wild animals to be 



killed. There the deer and pig are so numerous that tigers are welcome to keep them 



down. But the Sunderbunds, unwhole- 

 some islands at the Ganges mouth, still 

 swarm with them. So does the Malay 

 Peninsula. 



Mr. J. D. Cobbold shot a tiger in 

 Central Asia in a swamp so deep in snow 

 and so deadly cold that he dared not 

 stay for fear of being frozen to death. 

 Tigers sometimes wander as far west as the 

 Caucasus near the Caspian. The farther 

 north, the larger your tiger, is the rule. 

 The biggest ever seen in Europe was 

 a Siberian tiger owned by Herr Carl 

 Hagenbeck, of Hamburg, and the largest 

 known skin and skull is from the Far 



S) permission of Herr Cat I Hagenbeit] 



A LEOPARD-PUMA HYBRID 



This is a photograph from life of a -very rare hybrid. The amimart 

 father was a puma, its mother a leopard. It is now dead, and may be 

 seen stuffed in Mr. Rothschild' s Museum at Tring 



Phtto bj L. Midland, F.Z.S.] 



LEOPARDS 



[North Finchlif 



A pair of leopards, one spotted, the other black. Black leopards may be the 

 offspring of tht ordinary spotted form ; they are generally much more savage 



North. The skin is 1 3 feet 6 inches from 

 the nose to the end of the tail. The 



