3 86 CARNIVORES, 



with a platform of heavy stones, that falls upon and crushes the tiger, after the 

 manner of the brick or tile trap used by gardeners in this country to kill field- 

 mice. In some of the older works relating to the tiger there will be found cir- 

 cumstantial accounts of a method of capturing the animal by smearing leaves with 

 bird-lime, which adheres to its face and paws, and thus renders it completely blind 

 and helpless; but Sir J. Fayrer states that he is unaware of any authenticated 

 instance where this method has been put in practice. 



No account of the tiger would be complete without some reference to the 

 modes of hunting or shooting adopted by Europeans and many of the native chiefs 

 and shikaris, but as all these are fully described in works more especially devoted 

 to sport, such reference will be of the briefest. One plan, especially favoured by 

 the native shikari, who is less impatient of a solitary night watch than most 

 Europeans, is to build a platform or machan in a tree near the " kill," from which 

 the tiger may be shot on his return visit, a variation of this plan being to 

 construct the machan in any likely spot, and to tie up a goat, cow, or buffalo as a 

 bait. The uncertain light prevailing at the time of the tiger's visit renders 

 shooting from these machans far from certain. Throughout a large portion of 

 Bengal, the North- West Provinces, Central India, and the Terai-land at the foot of 

 the Himalaya, where tigers are generally found in swamps and grass-jungle, the 

 grass in the latter being often from eight to ten feet in height, the common, and 

 indeed often the only practicable plan, is to beat the jungles with lines of 

 elephants; the sportsmen either shooting from their howdahs, or from machans 

 placed in trees in positions commanding the ways along which the tiger is 

 likely to bolt. In other districts, and more especially in parts of Bombay and 

 Madras, tiger-shooting is often undertaken on foot. And, as Sir J. Fayrer observes, 

 it is in this dangerous sport that fatal and serious accidents are likely to happen, 

 for no accuracy of aim or steadiness of nerve can always guard against or prevent 

 the rush of even a mortally wounded tiger, that in its very death-throes may 

 inflict a dangerous or fatal injury. 



Stories of hair-breadth escapes from tigers, both when shooting on foot and 

 from the howdah, might be collected almost by the hundred, but would be foreign 

 to our purpose. We may, however, mention that in many parts of India the 

 tiger is regarded by the natives with a superstitious awe, which prevents them 

 from killing it, even when they have the power. As might be expected, this 

 awe is more developed among the superstitious Hindus than among the Moham- 

 medans. In all cases, however, it appears that the natives have no objection to 

 the slaughter of the tiger by Europeans. Frequently the tiger is regarded as 

 tenanted by a spirit rendering it immortal ; and in many districts the animal is 

 never mentioned by its proper name, sher or bagh, but invariably by some 

 euphemism. Closely connected with this superstition is the avidity with which 

 the claws, whiskers, front teeth, and the imperfect collar-bones of the tiger are 

 collected and preserved as charms by the natives of many districts; although, 

 by others they are held as deadly poisons, and are destroyed as soon as possible. 

 For these reasons a tiger-skin with the whiskers preserved is a rarity. 



