THE TIGER'S PARTIALITY TO PUTRID FLESH. l8l 



to feast upon the venison they have not killed themselves.' 

 Examples of their having done so are then related. 



" ' I have only just received a letter from Hazvkeye, and 

 cannot refrain from quoting a passage from a letter he 

 received from General B. having reference to the points 

 herein discussed at some length. It runs as follows : — 



"'Tigers Eating Putrid Flesh. 



" ' My experience goes to prove they prefer putrid to fresh 

 ' animals, though they drink of the blood, and unless disturbed, 

 'take a whet off the flanks or udder, just when they have 

 ' killed, but, in regard to their returning to dinner, there is 

 ' nothing certain whereon to go, for I have known them 

 ' not to return the same night, but to do so the night after, 

 ' when putrefaction has well set in ; then, again, I have 

 ' known them to return the same afternoon, ergo, there is no 

 ' certainty — no more than what a tusker you are following 

 ' will do. On this Hazvkeye remarks, the latter portion qualifies 

 'his first assertion, but there is to my mind no doubt as to 

 ' the fact that they eat putrid flesh, but whether they actually 

 ' prefer it we cannot pronounce until we are acquainted with 

 'feline language.'" 



" I think I have already satisfactorily shown the reason 

 of tigers occasionally eating fresh meat ; I have accounted 

 for their so doing by pointing out that they only so do 

 when pressed by hunger, or when apprehensive of being 

 disturbed." 



Tigers are very fond of the flesh of porcupines ; I have 

 on several occasions come on places where one of these animals 

 has been killed by a tiger. I fancy that he must lie in wait 

 for his prey as the only vulnerable part of a porcupine is his 

 head. It seems from the way that the quills are dispersed 



