THE TIGER'S SAVAGES. 35 



In disposition the Tiger differs but little from the other wild Felidce. Although possessed of such 

 immense strength and ferocity, he often shows himself a very coward. Like most animals he scarcely 

 ever attacks an armed man unless provoked, that is, unless he (or she) be a confirmed " man-eater," 

 although often seizing upon women and children. He shares with our Domestic Cat a love of cruelty 

 for its own sake. The author of " Rambles in the Mirzapore District " says of this essentially feline 

 character : "It is sometimes an interesting sight to witness the demeanour of a Tiger towards his terrified 

 prey (i.e., when a victim is tied up for him, and the sportsman waits to shoot him in the tree above 

 it). When not raging with hunger, he appears to derive the same pleasure from playing with his 

 victim as a Cat in tormenting a Mouse. He gambols around the Buffalo as if enjoying his alarm ; 

 and when the affrighted animal, in mad despair, feebly attempts to butt at his remorseless foe, the 

 Tiger bounds lightly over his head, and recommences his gambols at the other side. At last, as if he 

 had succeeded in creating an appetite for dinner, he crushes the skull of his victim with one blow of 

 his powerful fore-paw, and soon commences his bloody meal." 



Another point in which the Tiger resembles the Cat is the devotion of the female to her offspring, 

 and the i^emarkably lively and skittish disposition of the " kittens," of which from two to five are 

 usually produced at a birth. These are at first about half the size of our Domestic Cat. The mother 

 goes with young about 105 days, the breeding season being in the early part of the year, but varying 

 slightly according to locality. She is a most affectionate and attached mother, and generally guards 

 and trains her young with the most watchful solicitude. They remain with her until nearly full 

 grown, or about the second year, when they are able to cater for themselves. Whilst they remain 

 with her she is peculiarly vicious and aggressive, defending them with the greatest courage and 

 energy, and when robbed of them is terrible in her rage ; she has nevertheless been known to desert 

 them when pressed, and even to eat them when starved. 



As soon as they begin to require other food than her milk she kills for them, and teaches them to do 

 so for themselves by pi'actising on small animals, such as Deer, and young Calves and Pigs. At these 

 times she is wanton and extravagant in her cruelty, killing apparently for the gratification of her 

 ferocious and bloodthirsty nature, and, perhaps, to excite and instruct the young ones, and it is not 

 until they are thoroughly capable of providing their own food that she separates from them. 



The young Tigers are far more destructive than the old. They will kill three or four Cows at a 

 time, whilst the elder and more experienced rarely kill more than one, and this at intervals of from 

 three or four days to a week. For this purpose the Tiger will leave its retreat in the dense jungle, 

 proceed to the neighbourhood of a village, and during the night will steal towards the herds 

 and strike down a Bullock, drag it into a secluded place, and then remain near the " murrie," or 

 kill, for several days, until it has eaten it, when it will proceed in search of a further supply. When 

 it has once found good hunting-ground in the vicinity of a village, it continues its ravages, destroy- 

 ing one or two Cows or Buffaloes a week. It is very fond of the ordinary domestic cattle which, 

 in the plains of India, are generally weak, half-starved, imder-sized creatures. One of these is easily 

 struck down and carried or dragged off. The smaller Buffaloes are also easily disposed of, but the 

 Buffalo Bulls, and especially the wild ones, are formidable antagonists, and have often been known to 

 beat the Tiger off, and even to wound him serioxisly with their horns. 



Some notion of the fearful damages committed by Tigers in India will be gained from the follow- 

 ing extract : " Cattle killed in my district are numberless. As regards human beings, one Tiger in 

 1867-8-9, killed, respectively, twenty -seven, thirty-four, forty-seven people. I have known it attack 

 a party and kill four or five at a time. Once it killed a father, mother, and three children ; and the 

 week before it was shot it killed seven people. It wandered over a tract of twenty miles, never re- 

 maining in the same spot two consecutive days, and at last was destroyed by a bullet from a spring 

 gun, when returning to feed on the body of one of its victims a woman. At Nynee Tal, in Kumaon, 

 in 1856-7-8, there was a Tiger^that prowled about within a circle, say, of twenty miles, and it killed, 



on an average, about eighty men per annum. The haunts were well known at all seasons 



This Tiger was afterwards shot while devoiiring the body of an aged person it had killed." It is 

 also stated in a Government report that " in one instance, in the Central Provinces, a single 

 Tigress caused the desertion of thirteen villages, and two hundred and fifty square miles of country 

 were thrown out of cultivation. This state of things would, undoubtedly, have continued, but for the 



