TIGERS AND PUTRID FLESH. 175 



" ' That tigers will eat what they do not kill I have had early 

 'experience: — We left a stag which was shot late in the after- 

 'noon, and on going to cut it up the following morning, we 

 ' found a tiger had dragged the carcass into a shola not very far 

 ' off, where the antlers of the stag got locked between the stems 

 ' of two trees, and the tiger was obliged to make his meal 

 ' there, which he did to the extent of the greater portion of 

 ' the haunches.' " 



" And in a letter contributed to the South of India 

 Observer of November 26th, 1869, he says : — 



" ' Tigers are not particular as to the state of their food being 



' fresh or otherwise. It was observed in the that these 



'animals seldom — indeed never — were found to resort to the 

 ' carcasses of the bisons that had been shot until the effluvia from 

 ' them was exceedingly strong, indeed, it may be said when in 

 ' the highest state of putrefaction ; and, on one occasion, when 

 ' the tiger had dragged the putrefied carcass some distance, the 

 ' sportsman was able to follow it up to the spot by the scent, and 

 ' found the tiger quietly reposing close to the offensive remnants 

 ' of the bison. But we know that whenever a tiger kills game or 

 ' cattle, if undisturbed, he returns to his prey until (with or with- 

 'out the help of jackals or vultures), the whole is consumed, and 

 ' it must then be pretty high : In many cases it has been noticed 

 'that he makes his lair conveniently near at hand to protect the 

 ' intrusion of any such assistants in the demolition of the carcass. 

 ' On one occasion I was present when the noise of the descent of 

 'a large number of vultures on a dead buffalo lying just outside 

 ' a shola, caused the tiger, who had killed it, to put in an 

 ' appearance at noon day and protest his rights to the beef from 

 ' the feathered tribe, and not one of the birds would go near the 

 ' body so long as Mr. Stripes was in sight.' " 



" Colonel Douglas Hamilton, in his journal, thus graphi- 

 cally describes an incident to the same effect : — • 



