272 SIZE OF TIGERS. 



that, after having once tasted human flesh the tiger prefers it to any other. 

 The reason why tigresses should be more frequent offenders than their lords 

 is difficult to conjecture. Perhaps it is that when their cubs are young they 

 are often put to great straits to obtain food for them, or urged to acts of 

 boldness in their defence ; or the fact that tigresses are as a rule more 

 vicious, sly, and enterprising, as also more ferocious when pushed to extrem- 

 ities than tigers, may partly account for it. This may seem an ungallant 

 representation by a sportsman, (and who is more tender-hearted, more ready 

 to overlook the sex's failings than the true sportsman?) but it is the truth. 



How the belief arose that man-eaters are usually mangy animals it is 

 difficult to understand. I do not remember to have read of a single instance 

 of any sportsman finding this to be the case. Were tigers apt to lose their 

 hair, or to become lean in old age, a foundation for the belief might exist • 

 though to say that this was the result of eating human flesh would be erro- 

 neous. But old animals merely become lighter in colour, the black stripes 

 narrowing and becoming further apart, and very slightly mixed with grey 

 hairs, whilst the yellow turns to a paler hue than in youth. As far as my 

 own experience goes I have never seen a mangy or lean tiger. 



Man-eaters are exceedingly rare in Mysore and the surrounding terri- 

 tories. In the past fifteen years there has only been one of great note — the 

 Benkipoor tiger. This tiger flourished some twelve years ago, and caused 

 great loss of life in the country about Benkipoor in the Nugger Division of 

 Mysore. A large reward was offered by Government for his destruction, 

 but in the number of tigers shot and brought forward as the man-eater there 

 was a difficulty of identification. And though it is believed that he was at 

 last shot by a native shikarie, as all killing ceased from the time that a 

 male tiger with one fore-foot injured was brought in, it was not known at 

 the time that the real Simon Pure had been slain, and the enhanced reward 

 was never paid. 



Regarding the size of tigers, once a much-disputed point, all careful 

 observers are, I believe, agreed in accepting Dr Jerdon's view {Mammals of 

 India) as thoroughly correct. He says : " The average size of a full-grown 

 male tiger is from 9 to 9 J feet,* but I fancy that there is very little doubt 

 that, occasionally/, tigers are killed 10 feet in length, and perhaps a few inches 

 over that ; but the stories of tigers 1 1 feet and 1 2 feet in length, so often 

 heard and repeated, certainly require confirmation, and I have not myself 

 seen an authentic account of a tiger that measured more than 10 feet and 

 2 or 3 inches." I know two noted Bengal sportsmen who can each count 

 the tigers slain by them by hundreds, whose opinions entirely corroborate 



* From nose to tip of taiL 



