THE TRAIL OF THE TIGER 287 



was the brother of a Karen, who had been struck 

 down and carried away as he built a little temple 

 in the jungle just beside his padi field. In the 

 Malay Peninsula, just on the outskirts of Batu 

 Gaja, a Tamil woman, carrying her babe on her 

 hip, was mauled and her babe killed while making 

 a short cut to her house through a small piece of 

 open jungle. Such cases might be multiplied by 

 other observers to show the occasional boldness of 

 the man-eater; but as a rule it chooses a seques- 

 tered spot for its attack, and is, because of its 

 acquired skulking nature, the most difficult to hunt 

 of all tigers. 



Other popular misconceptions give the tiger 

 extraordinary leaping ability. It does not, as 

 habitually painted, leap upon the back of its vic- 

 tim to crunch the vertebrae of the neck. It may 

 do so occasionally on small game. I have seen 

 panther springing on the little barking deer, but 

 the usual tiger method is a stealthy stalk followed 

 by a swift rush and seizure of the victim's throat. 



It does not leap from twenty-five to one hundred 

 feet, as we frequently read. Twelve feet is nearer 

 the average of its jumps when chasing game, and 

 there is no record of its jumping streams of over 

 sixteen to eighteen feet in width. It is a bold 

 swimmer, and a frequent wader. 



