TIGER. 379 



will occupy its place, frequenting the same lairs, and drinking at the same pools. 

 Grass-jungles and swamps are, however, by no means the sole haunts of the 

 ti^-r, which will frequent any kind of country that will afford the necessary 

 shelter and a plentiful supply of water. In addition to forests, tigers select as 

 their lurking-places, clefts and caves in rocks, the shelter afforded by a high bank, 

 or the grass-grown ruins of the numerous deserted cities to be found in many 

 parts of the plains of India. And it is curious to observe that in many cases 

 one particular rock, or one patch of grass, is always inhabited by a tiger, while 

 another, apparently equally suitable, has no such tenant. Moreover, in the plains 

 of India, wherever tigers are met with, there will wild peafowl invariably be 

 found. 



Tigers are extremely impatient of the fierce heat of the dry season, and 

 always try to shelter themselves as much as possible from the burning rays of 

 the sun. This impatience of extreme heat, taken in conjunction with their 

 occurrence in comparatively cool climates, like those of Northern China, 

 Manchuria, and parts of Siberia, where the winters are severe, is in favour of the 

 view of Mr. Blanford, already mentioned, that these animals are comparatively 

 recent immigrants into a large portion of India. To aid in mitigating the heat of 

 the dry season, tigers are in the habit of wallowing in the shallow water of swamps 

 and the margins of rivers, and then rolling in the dry sand after their mud-bath. 

 Such, at any rate, are their habits in the plains of Bengal, Assam, etc. ; but it has 

 been stated that on the Nilgiri Hills, in Southern India, tigers are never known to 

 wallow in this manner. Not only does the tiger indulge in such wallowings during 

 the hot season, but he is also an excellent swimmer, and will take readily to the 

 water. In the Bramaputra, where reedy and grassy islands and sandbanks, 

 locally known as churs, intercept the course of the river, tigers, as Sir Samuel 

 Baker tells us, swim for miles during the night from island to island in search of 

 prey, and if unsuccessful return at dawn to the mainland. They likewise display 

 very similar habits in the Bengal sandarbans, where they not unfrequently cross 

 small arms of the sea. Sometimes they are compelled to take involuntarily to the 

 water, as in the case of the great inundations in the valleys of the larger Indian 

 rivers, or when tidal waves overflow the low-lying lands bordering the Bay of 

 Bengal. On such occasions the unfortunate animals are often put to sore straits to 

 find a refuge from the waste of waters, and Sir Samuel Baker relates an instance 

 of a tiger, during an inundation on the Bramaputra, having climbed up during 

 the night on the high rudder of a vessel, much to the astonishment and alarm of 

 the native steersman, when he beheld his visitor in the morning. From this position 

 the tiger made his way to the deck of the steamer towing the barge, where he was 

 eventually killed in the paddle-box. 



In spite of its predilection for water, the tiger can, however, at a pinch endure 

 thirst for a considerable period, even in the hottest weather. As an instance of this 

 we may refer to an account given by Mr. G. P. Sanderson, where two tigers were 

 surrounded by nets in a small patch of jungle. " The weather," writes the narrator, 

 " was hot ; the circle in which they were enclosed was only seventy yards in 

 diameter, and the heat of the fires kept up day and night all round was considerable. 

 Still they existed without a drop of water for ten days, suffering from wounds half 



