CO-OPERATIVE TIGERS 



To explain briefly, then the jungle was about a mile 

 in length, and perhaps half that distance in width and 

 divided into two blocks by this comparatively open glade, 

 some thirty yards wide, one end leading out into the plain 

 beyond, while at the other was a kind of cul de sac formed 

 by the jungle closing in again, and it was at this spot, 

 just within the jungle, that my " machan " had been 

 erected ; thus without being visible myself I commanded 

 the whole length of the opening so far as the eye could see. 



The two tigers were in the piece of jungle to my left, 

 but as I was watching them, one suddenly disappeared, 

 and some five minutes later, I caught sight of it for an 

 instant peering out of the opposite cover ! having evidently 

 crossed over through the heavy jungle behind me, as I 

 must otherwise have seen it crossing. 



Meanwhile the buffalo apparently finding the grass 

 in the glade to their liking had stopped and commenced 

 grazing, when suddenly, from the spot where I had first 

 seen them, out rushed a tiger with a roar so loud and 

 terrifying that the buffalo, taken completely unawares, 

 seemed quite demoralized for the moment, and before 

 they had time to recover and assume their ordinary de- 

 fensive attitude,* the tiger in the opposite cover where 

 it had lain concealed now attacked them too ! 



The scene that now followed is almost impossible to 

 describe not only because of the rapidity with which 

 it was enacted, but in the confusion that ensued it was 

 difficult to follow the sequence in which the events took 

 place. 



The buffalo, notwithstanding the unexpected second 

 attack, made some attempt to concentrate, but the tigers 

 were too quick for them, the first had already seized its 

 victim, and having brought it to the ground, was biting 

 at its throat, while the second, without a moment's hesi- 

 tation, sprang upon another, and seizing it by the neck 

 with teeth and claws, seemed to kill it instantaneously ; 

 but this was the extent of their ravages, for the herd had 

 at length succeeded in packing together, presenting a 



* A herd of buffalo when attacked by a tiger, generally if they have 

 time form themselves into a square, and usually succeed in driving the 

 beast off, and sometimes even kill it. AUTHOR. 



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