THE TIGER. 253 



hot season for the purpose of making an impression on the 

 numerous tigers which at that time rendered working in the 

 forests and carrying timber so dreaded by the natives, and 

 consequently costly to Government. 



Although there is much in the sport of tiger-hunting that 

 renders it inferior as a mere exercise, or as an effort of skill, 

 to some other pursuits of these regions (for many a man has 

 killed his forty or fifty tigers who has never succeeded in 

 bagging, by fair stalking, a single bull bison or a stag sdmbar), 

 yet there is a stirring of the blood in attacking an animal 

 before whom every other beast of the forest quails, and un- 

 armed man is helpless as the mouse under the paw of a cat 

 a creature at the same time matchless in beauty of form and 

 colour, and in terrible power of offensive armature which 

 draws men to its continued pursuit after that of every other 

 animal has ceased to afford sufficient excitement to undergo 

 the toil of hunting in a tropical country. 



It will have been gathered from previous descriptions that 

 the hot season, the height of which is in April and May, is 

 the most favourable time for hunting the tiger. Then the water- 

 supply of the country is at its lowest ebb ; and the tiger, being 

 very impatient of thirst, seeks the lowest valleys, where, too, 

 much of the game he preys on has congregated, and where 

 the village cattle are regularly watered. In Central India 

 tigers vary a good deal in their habits and range ; and they 

 may be roughly classed into those which habitually prey on 

 wild animals, those which live chiefly on domestic cattle, and 

 the few that confine their diet to the human species. Not, 

 of course, that any tiger adheres invariably to the same sort of 

 prey. But there are a large number that appear to prefer 

 each of the former methods of existence, and a few that select 

 the latter. 



