TIGER. 383 



little more than a skeleton. During the intervals between his meals, the tiger is 

 sluggish and stupid, being with difficulty roused from his slumbers, and when so 

 awakened he is dull and indisposed to show fight. 



Although it has been much exaggerated, the strength displayed by a tiger in 

 carrying off his prey is enormous. The weight of the ordinary Indian cattle, accord- 

 ing to Sir Samuel Baker's estimate, may be set down roughly at from 350 to 400 Ibs. 

 And although it is quite an error to suppose that a tiger can take a carcase of 

 that weight and carry it in his mouth without letting any portion of it drag on the 

 ground, at least at intervals, yet it is quite certain that he can carry it. Thus, Mr. 

 Sanderson relates how a powerful tiger had taken up and carried the carcase of a 

 bullock through a dense thicket for about three hundred yards ; while a smaller 

 tigress carried one in open jungle for a shorter distance. As a general rule, however, 

 the bodies are dragged along the ground ; although this, when the nature of the 

 surface in Indian jungles is taken into account, is a sufficiently formidable task. 



Forsyth considered it probable that a cattle-killing tiger destroyed a victim 

 about every fifth day ; three days being employed in feasting on the carcase and 

 resting in the intervals, while during the other two food was not specially sought. 

 This, when we remember the number of these animals in certain parts of India, 

 will give some idea of the losses they occasion. According to a return issued by 

 Government, it appears that in the Madras Presidency, during the quarter ending 

 31st December 1891, the number of animals killed by tigers and leopards included 

 656 bullocks, 752 cows, 236 calves, 135 buffaloes, 105 sheep, and 103 goats. In 

 the returns for all India for one year, during which 1835 cattle were killed, 

 the total loss was set down at a little short of 60,000 head, of which 20,000 

 were assigned to tigers, and an equal number to leopards. Although the rnan- 

 eating tiger is much more dreaded, the cattle -lifting tiger is regarded with 

 supreme indifference by the herdsmen of the districts it infests. " It is no 

 uncommon feat," observes a well-known popular writer, " for a party of jungle 

 herdsmen armed only with their iron-bound lathis, or quarter-staves, to boldly show 

 fight to the royal robber, and by sheer pluck and gallant daring beat him off from 

 some member of their herd that he may have attacked. Too frequently, to be sure, 

 some one or more of the number may pay dearly for their temerity, but it is an 

 apt illustration of the fact that men get inured to a commonly-incurred danger." 

 Mr. Blanford mentions that he once came across two children, of which the elder 

 was not more than eight or nine years of age, who had actually been placed in the 

 jungle as a guard over the dead body of a bullock, to protect it from the return visit 

 of the tiger by which it had been slain. 



It has been considered that man-eating tigers, which generally belong to the 

 female sex, were invariably animals unable to procure other food, from the effects 

 of age. Although this is true in a very large number of instances, it appears that 

 tigers may take to man-eating from a variety of other causes. Thus either wounds, 

 excessive fat, or the fact of a tigress having had to bring up a family of cubs where 

 food is scarce, may be the original cause of the adoption of this mode of life. 

 According to Mr. Sanderson, all man-eaters were invariably at first cattle -stealers, 

 which gradually became accustomed to the sight and presence of man, and thus 

 lost their instinctive fear of the human race. When once a tiger has taken to 



