VALUE OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS KILLED BY TIGERS. 207 



his victim in broad daylight. The ranges of these tigers where not disturbed 

 are generally confined to a few villages ; but if they have been hunted and 

 are shy, they extend their visiting circle considerably. The tigers in the 

 vicinity of my camp at Moiiay (the hunting of which will be described 

 further on) had a range of about twenty miles in length by ten in breadth. 

 To this tract there were eight tigers originally, all solitary except a tigress 

 and her nearly full-grown cub. 



The largest tigers are found amongst habitual cattle-killers. When a 

 tiger becomes old and fat he usually settles down in some locality where 

 beef and water are plentiful, and here he lives on amicable terms with the 

 villagers, Idlling a cow or bullock about once in four or five days. Some 

 tigers contract the habit, through being interfered with, of killing more than 

 one animal in each attack. I have seen three, four, and five cattle on the 

 ground together after attacks by single tigers, and on one occasion fourteen 

 killed by one tiger, in a herd overtaken by a storm ; many of the cattle 

 were benumbed and unable to escape. Cow-herds in the habit of meeting 

 tigers often behave very boldly when their charge is attacked. Where three 

 or four men are together they seldom think of leaving a tiger in undisturbed 

 possession of his prey. 



Capt. Forsyth estimates the value of cattle killed by tigers in the Central 

 Provinces at from £5 to £10 apiece; and that a tiger will kill from sLxty 

 to seventy such animals, or between £325 and £650 worth per annum. 

 These figures seem excessively high. The value of nine-tenths of Indian 

 village-cattle is certainly under £1 each. I never found difficulty in getting 

 old cattle for baits for four shillings per head. I have the returns of 

 domestic animals killed in Mysore for the past five years at hand, but they 

 are of little assistance in estimating the total value of the animals destroyed, 

 as goats, sheep, donkeys, &c. (mostly killed by panthers and leopards, and 

 a few by wolves), are included with cattle. 



The individual value of these animals may be set down at an average 

 of Es. 7 (fourteen shilliugs), as goats, sheep, and donkeys are worth only a 

 few shillings. Allowing each tiger even seventy horned cattle per annum 

 at £1 each, the loss would amount to £70 per tiger, which I imagine is 

 nearer the mark than £650. 



It may be thought that even this loss is sufficiently serious to warrant 

 the advocating of a war of extermination against tigers, but the tiger might, 

 in turn, justly present his little account for services rendered in keeping 

 down wild animals which destroy crops. His agency in this respect goes far, 

 in the opinion of many sportsmen of experience, towards counterbalancing 

 the bill against him for beef. It is pig and deer — not the tiger and panther 



