272 HAUNTS AND HOBBIES 



him still alive, and he felt his own strength failing. 

 Presently the grip of his hands relaxed, and he fell. 

 He felt too much shaken to move, and had his leg 

 within reach of the tiger's jaws. The tiger had just 

 sufficient life remaining to enable him to seize the 

 leg and crunch it. The officer was rescued, and 

 eventually recovered, but it was with the loss of his 

 limb. What made the case sadder was that he was 

 remarkably handsome and a soldier of much promise. 

 The event occurred long before I had charge of the 

 Doon, but at a time when I happened to be at Mus- 

 soorie on leave. I tell the story as I then heard it. 



I will conclude my account of the tigers by the 

 correction of a very prevalent error in regard to some 

 of them. It is commonly supposed, especially in this 

 country, that the tigers termed " man-eaters " are tigers 

 of unusual ferocity. It is quite otherwise. They 

 are tigers whose strength and activity have become 

 diminished by age. Unable to catch the deer and 

 wild animals, as before, they approach the villages and 

 prey on the sheep and cattle or, if they happen to meet 

 with any, on the human inhabitants ; and this they 

 continue to do when opportunity offers, not from any 

 special partiality for the flesh of man, but because it 

 happens to be easily obtainable. 



Having said so much on the tigers, I ought not to 

 leave unmentioned their near but less imposing rela- 

 tions, the leopards. Although smaller and weaker, the 

 leopards are far more numerous than are the tigers, and 

 they are also more frequently met with. When travel- 

 ling through the forests I have many times seen thenj 



