2OO Wild Beasts 



climb? How large are they? Will they assail human 

 beings without provocation, or has the aspect of humanity 

 a restraining power over them ? May they be met with 

 casually, and at any time ? Where are their favorite lairs ? 

 Are they brave or cowardly, cunning or stupid, enterpris- 

 ing, adaptive, energetic, or the reverse ? 



Sanderson declares that the tiger never roars ; he grunts 

 according to Major Bevan, and the only approach to roar- 

 ing Baldwin ever heard, was a hollow, hoarse, moaning cry, 

 made by holding his head close to the ground. Inglis de- 

 scribes the sound as like the fall of earth into some deep 

 cavity, and Colonel Davidson protests that the tiger barks. 

 Pollok, Leveson, Shakespear, and Rice assert that he roars 

 loudly, terribly, magnificently, tremendously ; and D'Ewes 

 (" Sporting in Both Hemispheres") states that in compari- 

 son with the roar of a tigress he encountered in the jungle 

 between Ballary and Dharwar, " any similar sound he may 

 have heard, either at the zoological gardens or elsewhere, 

 was like a penny trumpet beside an ophicleide." All these 

 names are those of men who hold the most conspicuous 

 positions among hunters of large game ; all had killed 

 many tigers and often heard the animal's voice. 



Much the same contradictory evidence exists with regard 

 to other things. Colonel Pollok assures us that if he trusted 

 to ambushing game to supply himself with food he would 

 starve to death. Captain Rice, a renowned slayer of tigers, 

 lays down the law to this effect, that these brutes never 

 attack except from an ambush. 



Without crowding the page with references, suffice it to 

 say that both by day and night, in forests, thickets, and open 



