180 THE tiger's partiality to putrid flesh. 



where the body of a tiger (killed by a native shikarie the 

 previous day with a poisoned arrow) was found partially 

 devoured. They must have been ravenously hungry, 

 indeed." 



In a second postscript he says: " I have only this 

 moment returned from viewing the carcass of a cow killed 

 by a tiger yesterday. I shall very briefly describe what I 

 witnessed while I retain a vivid recollection of the facts. 

 The tiger had killed the bullock in the open, about a 

 couple of hundred yards from a long stretch of very dense 

 jungle into which he had dragged it. No one had been 

 to the spot before I went there this afternoon, so the tiger 

 must be allowed to have had every opportunity of having 

 a tug into fresh beef, if so disposed, undisturbed, notwith- 

 standing which the carcass remains entire, with the excep- 

 tion of a very small piece. The tiger must be somewhere 

 in the jungle, not far from his food, for I observed a flock 

 of vultures {Gyps bengalensis) on the qui vive, but at a 

 respectful distance from the carcass. Press of business 

 elsewhere, which cannot be postponed, compels me most 

 reluctantly to quit this place, Kainmaree, this evening, or I 

 should, I daresay, have been able to give a good account of 

 the marauder. Shikaries and ryots hereabouts in the Soon- 

 derbuns tell me, that unless the tiger is very hungry indeed, 

 or is in dread of being disturbed, he will not feed on his kill 

 till putrefaction fairly sets in. 



"Apropos of the superior felines eating game killed by 

 the sportsman, I cannot resist the temptation of quoting 

 a sentence from Gordon Cumming's ' Lion Hunting in 

 South Africa,' which I chanced to see on opening his 

 book just now : — ' Lions do not refuse, as has been asserted, 



