278 THE TIGER'S MODE OF SEIZING ITS PREY. 



cumbed to. The bull was attacked when lying down, and had evidently been 

 seized by the nape of the neck. His immense strength had enabled him to 

 rise, the tiger probably at first maintaining his hold. The antagonists had 

 then separated and closed several times. The ground was torn up, and 

 the fallen leaves were red with blood from the buffalo ; branches eight feet 

 from the ground were splashed with blood blown from his nostrils, or thrown 

 up in his efforts to rid himself of the tiger. He had at last, after a gallant 

 fight, stumbled into a trench, used for conveying water to the gardens 

 wherein the struggle took place, and had been there killed by his fero- 

 cious assailant. 



It is evident that in the case of beasts with horns a tiger would find 

 them considerably in his way in seizing by the back of the neck. More- 

 over, the beast would be borne to the ground, where killing it would be a 

 longer affair than by dislocating its neck in the manner described. Dislo- 

 cation could not be effected on the ground as well as by turning the throat 

 upwards, when the inertia of the beast's carcass before it is overthrown 

 presents a sufficient purchase to effect the dislocation. That the tiger does 

 not seize by the nape of the neck is also apparent from the fact that the 

 gape of the largest is insufficient to take in the neck of big cattle so as to 

 bring the fangs to the lower part of the throat where the fatal marks are 

 always found. I imagine Captain Baldwin must be alone in his experience 

 of finding wounds at the back of the neck. 



Cattle are seized by tigers when grazing in the jungles at any hour 

 of the day, but more frequently after three o'clock in the afternoon- 

 Should the tiger fail in his attempt to seize, he pursues the animal or 

 others of the herd, striking savagely at their hind-legs to hamstring or upset 

 them ; or he gallops round through the bushes, and attacks again from the 

 side or front. The tiger's powers of springing seem inconsiderable. I 

 observed that tigers always forded, never jumped, an irrigation channel not 

 more than eighteen feet wide, that flowed through the jungles near Morlay, 

 and which they frequently crossed during their night's prowls. I have 

 frequently measured the bounds of tigers that have pursued deer, and have 

 found fifteen feet to be about the utmost they usually spring. I have seen 

 it surmised, upon a consideration of the respective size and power of a tiger 

 and of a cat, that the tiger can cover a hundred feet at a bound. Were 

 a flea or grasshopper adopted as the basis of calculation, a much more 

 startling result might be obtained. The popular belief that a tiger slinks 

 away should he fail in his attack is erroneous, as also the belief that he can 

 kill his prey by a stroke of the paw. I have never seen anything to sup- 

 port this belief, nor is it held by natives. Of none of the sportsmen or 



