The Tiger 201 



grass land, tigers have many times been reported by equally 

 reliable witnesses both to stalk their game, and to spring 

 upon it from a place of concealment. 



The striped assassin is provided with a jaw and teeth 

 that enable him to crush the large bones of a buffalo. He 

 can strike his claws, as Major Bevan saw him do, through 

 the skull of an ox into its brain, or break a horse's back 

 with a blow of his forearm. How then does he despatch 

 his victims ? Their necks are dislocated, says Colonel Pol- 

 lok ; by biting into them and wrenching round the head 

 with his paws, explains Captain Forsyth. Not at all, pro- 

 tests Baldwin ; dislocation is effected by bending the head 

 backward. In neither way, Dr. Jerdon declares ; the ani- 

 mal's neck is always broken by a blow. Sir Samuel Baker 

 adds his testimony to the effect that a tiger never strikes, 

 and Sanderson says " the blow with his paw is a fable." 

 Other authorities maintain that the cervical vertebrae are 

 crushed when the beast, as it always does, bites the back 

 of the neck ; and yet others are sure that since he never 

 seizes an animal in this manner, loss of blood is the im- 

 mediate cause of death, because the great vessels are severed 

 when a tiger, as is his invariable practice, cuts into the 

 throat. Sanderson states that the blood is not sucked, 

 since a tiger could not form the necessary vacuum. In re- 

 sponse to this Shakespear and Davidson both saw the blood 

 of animals that had been tied up as lures sucked, and 

 Colonel Campbell, Captain Rice, Major Leveson, and others 

 speak of this act as having come under their personal cog- 

 nizance. 



These animals have been so generally credited with great 



