INDIAN SHOOTING 197 



Elephant Establishment at Daudpore, says : ' The tiger proved 

 to be the largest ever killed on the Cossim Bazar island. The 

 circumference of the joint at his wrist was 26 ins. ; he was 

 13 ft. and a few inches from the tip of his nose to the end 

 of his tail, and in a right line, taken as he lay, from the sole 

 of his forepaw to the tip of his withers, between the shoulders, 

 gave very nearly 4 ft. for his height.' As the old gentleman 

 afterwards states that 'nine in ten do not measure 10 ft.,' 

 it seems only fair to conclude that the above extraordinary 

 measurements were honestly taken of the beast as he lay before 

 being skinned. 



Captain Forsyth's division of tigers into three classes has 

 been generally accepted by sportsmen as a correct definition 

 of their habits. They are, as Sanderson writes : ' Those which 

 habitually prey upon cattle ; those which live upon game alone ; 

 and the few dreaded individuals of their race that frequently 

 prey upon human beings.' None of these classes absolutely 

 restrict themselves to one diet. The cattle-lifter will kill game 

 occasionally, the game-killer does not despise a juicy young 

 buffalo, nor does a man-eater live entirely on human flesh ; 

 but in broad terms the game-killer, who is in reality one of the 

 villagers' best friends in that he preys upon the wild pigs and 

 deer that ravage his crops, is an active wandering beast which is 

 proportionately hard to bring to bag, being generally met with 

 by chance. 



The cattle-lifter is generally a stay-at-home old gentleman, 

 averse to travel, who takes two or three villages under his 

 protection, and lives, as far as they will allow him, on good 

 terms with the people, simply taking a cow, or a donkey, as his 

 droit du seigneur every four or five days. Occasionally he may 

 contract the wasteful habit of knocking over two or three 

 animals at a time out of a herd ; but this, as Sanderson points 

 out, is the result of continual ill-judged interference on the 

 part of the cowherds. Buffaloes in a herd he is too wary to 

 meddle with, as he knows they will not hesitate to charge him, 

 and the small boys who pretend to look after them traverse 



