r2 8 THE INDIAN FAUNA 



Gaur-calves fall easy victims, but the mastering of a full-grown bull gaur is 

 more than most tigers are able to manage. Sometimes hungry tigers will be con- 

 tented with food not much to their taste, such as frogs; and during floods in 

 Bengal they have been seen to devour fish, tortoises, crocodiles, and large lizards ; 

 and there is a case on record of a tiger being killed in whose stomach was found 

 nothing but locusts. 



The number of domesticated animals killed every year by tigers is very con- 

 siderable, and many tigers seem to live exclusively on such food. By long ex- 

 perience the tiger has grown more and more cunning, and less afraid of man. 

 Tigresses with their cubs often take up their quarters in the neighbourhood of a 

 village, and prey on the herds ; and, in fact, they always show a great predilection 

 for beef. Sheep and goats are less frequently attacked, but pigs, horses, and camels 

 are never safe from their voracity. 



The manner in which tigers kill their prey has been often discussed. It 

 has been supposed that they leap on their victims from a distance, and kill them 

 with their paws, or tear their throats and suck the blood ; but this is not the 

 case so far as cattle are concerned. It may be that tigers kill small animals by 

 striking them with the fore-paw, but domesticated animals killed by tigers are 

 generally found with their necks broken, and the arteries of the neck untouched, 

 although the neck and breast bear numerous wounds made by the claws. Con- 

 sequently it would seem that tigers do not spring on their prey, and native 

 herdsmen confirm this opinion. According to their accounts, a tiger clasps the fore- 

 quarters of its victim, puts one of its paws on the shoulder, then clutches the throat 

 and turns its neck backwards, leaping to one side at the same time so as to throw 

 down its victim and twist or break its neck. Perhaps tigers do not always trouble 

 to break the necks of small animals, and when they attack larger victims, such 

 as buffalo, which they are unable to throw on their backs, they apparently ham- 

 string them. 



Very probably tigers take advantage of the sudden fright, to which their 

 appearance gives rise, to rush on their victims ; and they generally crawl stealthily 

 as close up as possible before the final rush, though they have occasionally been 

 observed to gallop up to their prey. When a tiger brings down an animal 

 during the day, it sometimes carries the carcase a little way off, but generally 

 leaves it untouched till the evening in order to return after sunset and carry it to a 

 quieter place before making a meal. The manner in which a tiger will drag the 

 carcases of cattle and buffalo across uneven ground, through dense bushes, and up 

 steep slopes, shows its enormous muscular strength. Sometimes it will lift the 

 carcase clear of the ground, and in one instance a tiger carried a bull weighing some 

 450 lbs. for a distance of about 300 paces. 



When disturbed by jackals or vultures, tigers drive them away, but frequent 

 interruption usually makes them hide their prey under bushes and leaves, and 

 retire to a thicket near water. If a tiger is very hungry it will eat both hind- 

 quarters of a large animal in a night, and when undisturbed, remains with the carcase 

 for three days, eating from time to time. Although a cow may perhaps be sufficient 

 to feed it for five days, a tiger begins to look out for other prey before the end of 

 that time. Young tigers, which are much more destructive than old animals, may 



