84 SPORT IN BENGAL. 



average length of tigers, but is disposed to admit that some 

 have been killed measuring ten feet, or " perhaps a few inches 

 over." My own experience, added to that of several friends 

 competent to give opinions on this subject is, that the last- 

 named authority under-estimates a little the length of large 

 males ; and that while ten feet may be accepted as that of a 

 fine specimen of the tiger of the plains, ten and a quarter is 

 not rare, nor ten and a half unheard of ; although exceptional 

 tigresses measure fully a foot less, and one of nine and a half 

 feet is uncommon; nine to nine and a quarter being the 

 ordinary measurement. 



Naturally the question arises, how then is it that in that 

 admirable and most interesting book, " Tiger Shooting in 

 India/' measurements of these animals killed in Central India 

 are recorded over and over again as ranging from eleven to 

 twelve feet ? Thus taking the figures as to the first half- 

 dozen (pages, 7, 50, 56, CO, 73, and 89), the average length of 

 males attains to eleven feet eight and a half inches ; and the 

 first three females (pages, 48, 122, and 126) one being but a 

 young one to nine feet seven inches and a third, while a 

 tigress shot, as described in page 190, measured ten feet six 

 inches. 



Now these measurements exceed by two feet or there- 

 abouts the average of males shot in Bengal, and by seven 

 inches that of females. If they are absolutely correct, the 

 conclusion is that the Central Indian tiger is very much 

 longer than his brother of the Lower Provinces, but the tigress 

 is only a little more so than her Bengal sister. 



If the excellent drawings which illustrate this book may 

 be relied upon as correctly depicting the scenery of the 

 country in which Captain Rice and his companions killed 

 their tigers, it may be here stated for the information of 

 young sportsmen that in Bengal they will find no such open 

 country infested by these animals, any more than they will 

 find such large tigers and tigresses. 



Now Colonel Gordon Gumming in " Wild Men and Wild 

 Beasts," has given the measurements of some tigers and 



