260 VERTEBRATA. 



its way. The bound with which it throws itself upon its victim is terrific: in these attacks, it 

 often makes a leap of fiftj feet. Such is its strength, that man is a mere puppet in its gripe: 

 even the Indian buffalo, which is as large as our ox, is not only home down by this ferocious 

 l>. ast, but is dragged off by it without difficulty. The tigress has three to five cubs at a birth; 

 in their defense -he is even more fierce than the lioness. 



Ilie tiger, of which there is but a single species — although there is a Chinese variety, which 

 9 of a paler color, ami sometimes, it i> said, of a white ground, with black and gray stripes — 

 is found only in A>ia. It is most common in Eindostan, where it reigns supreme in the wilds, 

 complete master of the animal kingdom. It is met with in various parts of Central Asia, and in 

 some of the great Asiatic islands: in certain districts of Sumatra it is the scourge of the country, 

 being permitted t<> go on increasing because of a superstitious notion of the people that it is ani- 

 mated by the souls of their ancestors, and therefore it must not be destroyed. It lurks among 

 the bushes along the sides of rivers, and so numerous is the race that they have nearly depopu- 

 lated many places. 



Various devices have been put in requisition to take or annihilate this destructive quadruped. 

 Ten rupees were formerly offered by the East India Company for every tiger destroyed within 

 the provinces where their power and influence extended — a small reward, but sufficient, conjointly 

 with the depredations of the animal, to stimulate the poorer classes to destroy it. 



A kind of Bprmg-bow was formerly laid in its way, and discharged a poisoned arrow, generally 

 with fatal effect, when the animal came in contact with a cord stretched across its path; and this 

 method is said to be still in use in some places. Again, a heavy beam was suspended over the 

 way traversed by the tiger, which fell and crushed him on his disengaging a cord which let the 

 beam fall. A Persian device is said to consist of a large, spherical, and strongly interwoven bamboo 

 cage, "i - "ii'' made of other suitable materials, with intervals throughout, three or four inches 

 broad. Under this shelter, which is picketed to the ground in the tiger's haunt, a man provided 

 with two or three short strong spears takes post by night, with a dog or a goat as his companion, 

 wraps himself in his quilt and goes to sleep. A tiger arrives, of whose presence the man is 

 warned by the dug or the goat, and generally after smelling about, rears himself up against the 

 cage, upon which the man stabs him resolutely with his short spear through one of the interstices 

 of the wicker-work. 



It seems ludicrous to talk of taking a tiger with bird-lime; but it is said to be so captured 

 in Oude. When a tiger's track is ascertained, the peasants, we are told, collect a quantity of leai 68 

 resembling those of the sycamore, and wdiich are common in most Indian underwoods; these they 

 smear with a kind of bird-lime, which is made from the berries of an indigenous and by no means 

 scarce tree, and strew them with the adhesive substance uppermost, in some gloomy spot to 

 which the tiger resorts in the heat of the day. If he treads on one of the limed leaves he gener- 

 ally begins by trying to shake it from his paw, and not succeeding, proceeds to rub it against his 

 jaw in order to get rid of it. Thus his eyes and ears become agglutinated, and the uneasy 

 animal rolls, perhaps, among many more of the smeared leaves, till he becomes enveloped : in 

 this state be has been compared to a man who has been tarred and feathered. The tiger's irri- 

 tation and uneasiness find vent in dreadful howlings, on which the peasants hasten to the spot, 

 and shoot him without difficulty. 



The tiger-hunt, as practiced in India, is perhaps the grandest and most exciting of wild sports. 

 CTpon such occasions the whole neighborhood is on the move, and two hundred elephants have 

 been known to take the field. From ten to thirty of these gigantic animals, each carrying sports- 

 men armed with rifles, have frequently started for the jungle. An English writer gives the 

 following account of one of these expeditions: 



'• We had elephants, guns, balls, and all other necessaries prepared, and about seven in the 

 morning we set off. The jungle was generally composed of corinda-bushes, which were stunt} 

 and thin, and looked like ragged thorn-bushes; nothing could be more desolate in appearance; ■ 

 it seemed a- if we had '_ r ot to the furthest limits of cultivation or the haunts of men. At times 

 the greener bunches of jungle, the usual abodes of the beasts of prey during the day-time, and the 

 few huts scattered lore and there, which could hardly be called villages, seemed like islands in 



