The Tiger 233 



The hunting tiger is not the highest development of his 

 species. He has not much to learn, compared with a man- 

 eater, in order to adjust himself to the requirements of life ; 

 and the gaunt, somewhat undersized, active, hardy, shy and 

 solitary beast, pursues the tenor of his way far from the 

 habitations of men, of whom he is wary and distrustful, 

 chiefly on account of their strangeness. 



To a cattle-lifter life presents more diversified scenes. 

 The way in which the animal lives implies a greater com- 

 plexity of conditions to which he is required to adapt himself, 

 and a corresponding development of faculty. This kind of 

 tiger, except under circumstances which rarely occur, is both 

 a game-killer and beef-eater. Few districts yield a constant 

 supply in the way of cattle, and when that fails, necessity 

 compels the marauder to hunt almost exclusively, or take 

 to homicide. On the one hand, these creatures have the 

 experiences and training of their brethren belonging to 

 the wastes ; on the other, they are to some extent brought 

 into a certain relationship with human beings, become 

 accustomed to them, observe their actions, and are famil- 

 iarized during those plundering expeditions, by which they 

 mainly support themselves, with a variety of things which 

 are altogether outside the ordinary experiences of wild 

 beasts. Of the two classes, it goes without saying that 

 the latter must be the more evolved ; for it is not more 

 certain that, other things being equal, the man who has 

 had most training will be most capable, than it is that the 

 same effects will follow in the case of tigers. 



Those regions inhabited by hunting tigers have not failed 

 to contribute, through the influence of their associations 



