274 CANNIBAL TIGERS. 



joor jungles was given me by old Bommay Gouda, wliom I have already 

 mentioned as having lived all his life amongst tigers, bears, and elephants 

 and as an authority wliose interesting accounts of the habits and pecvdiari- 

 ties of the occupants of the jungles could l)e relied on. It appears that this 

 tiger killed several bears at diflurent times whilst feeding, coming from be- 

 liind and seizing them by the nape of the neck, and bearing them down (no 

 pun intended), after a struggle, by his weight and strength. Towards corrob- 

 orating this account some Sh51agas at the other end of the hills, twenty miles 

 away, and who knew nothing of wliat Bommay Gouda had told me, gave 

 me a similar account ; adding that a bear had been thus killed and partially 

 eaten in a clearing where they were watching their crops early one morning. 

 This was doubtless the same tiger. My Morlay trackers also told me that 

 some years ago they surrounded a bear and her three-parts grown cub with 

 nets in a date-gTOve close to wliich my bungalow now stands at Morlay. 

 The bears broke through the nets, the big she being severely speared in 

 doing so, and both got clear away to a ravine a mile distant. Next morning 

 they were found together, dead, and the large bear partially eaten by a tiger 

 whose marks were all around. Whether she had died of her wounds or had 

 been killed by the tiger the men had not taken sufficient notice at the time 

 to be able to tell me, but the cub had been killed. This was also probably 

 the work of the same tiger. The carcass of a bear which I once shot at 

 Yerlsariga, and wliich was dragged to some distance from the tents after 

 being skinned, was partially eaten by a leopard that night, which shows 

 that the Fdidce do not always confine themselves to cattle and game. 



One of the strangest things I ever heard of in connection witli tigers 

 is an instance of three tigers devouring a fourth. This was also told me 

 by Bommay Gouda and two Sholagas who were with him at tlie time of 

 the occurrence. For my own part I believe the story. It was tliat a male 

 tiger killed a buffalo late one evening ; the carcass was found partially 

 eaten next day ; and the following, or second morning, when some low- 

 caste men, under Bommay Gouda's guidance, went to take whatever miglit 

 be left, they found the head and shoulders of a large tiger, and some bones 

 of the buffalo. Tlie ground around bore traces of a savage fight, and it was 

 found that a party of three tigers had disturbed tlie original slayer of the 

 buffalo at supper, and the struggle which ensued for possession ended in 

 his death. There was probably then only a little meat remaining, which 

 the victorious party finished, and forthwith set to at their defunct relative 

 (a beef-sausage !). These tigers' blood being up, and their appetites excited, 

 not appeased, with the remains of the buflalo, and the dead tiger lying 

 ready to hand, perhaps somewhat mangled, their eating him can be imagined 



