88 WILD BEASTS AND TIIKIR WAYS CIIAI-. 



inches above the average. The same tiger may be stretched to 

 measure 10 feet. 



No person who examines skins only can form any idea of the 

 true proportions of a tiger. The hide, when stripped from a tiger 

 of 9 feet 7 inches, weighs 45 Ibs. if the animul is bulky. The 

 head, skinned, weighs 25 Ibs. These weights are taken from an 

 animal which weighed 437 Ibs. exclusive of the lost blood, which 

 was quite a gallon, estimated at 10 Ibs. This would have brought 

 the weight to 447 Ibs. The hide of this tiger, which measured 

 9 feet 7 inches when upon the animal, was 1 1 feet 4 inches in 

 length when cured. I have measured many tigers, and the skins 

 arc always stretched to a ridiculous length during the process of 

 curing ; these would utterly mislead any naturalist who had not 

 practical experience of the live animal. 



The tiger of zoological gardens is a long lithe creature with 

 little flesh, and, from the lack of exercise, the muscles are badly 

 developed. Such a specimen affords a poor example of the grand 

 animal in its native jungles, whose muscles are almost ponderous 

 in their development from the continual exertion in nightly 

 rambles over long distances, and in mortal struggles when wrest- 

 ling with its prey. A well-fed tiger is by no means a slim figure, 

 but on the contrary it is exceedingly bulky, broad in the shoulders, 

 back, and loins, with an extraordinary girth of limbs, especially in 

 the forearm and wrist. The muscles are tough and hard, and 

 there are two peculiar bones unattached to the skeleton frame ; 

 these are situated in the flesh of either shoulder, apparently to 

 afford extra cohesion of the parts, resulting in additional strength 

 when striking a blow or wrestling with a heavy animal. 



There is a great difference in the habits of tigers ; some exist 

 upon the game of the jungles, others prey specially upon the flocks 

 and herds belonging to the villagers ; the latter are generally 

 exceedingly heavy and fat. A few are designated "man-caters"; 

 these are sometimes naturally ferocious, and having attacked a 

 human being, they may have devoured the body and thus have 

 acquired a taste for human flesh ; or they may have been wounded 

 upon more than one occasion and have learnt to regard man as a 

 natural enemy ; but more frequently the man-eater is a wary old 

 tiger, or more probably a tigress, that, having haunted the neigh- 

 bourhood of villages, and carried off some unfortunate woman when 

 gathering firewood or the wild products of the jungles, has dis- 

 covered that it is far easier to kill a native than to hunt for the 

 scarce jungle game ; the animal therefore adopts the pursuit of 

 man, and seldom attempts to molest the native's cattle. 



