EOAK1NG. 91 



taminated by much intercourse with the ordinary Bengalees 

 and the corrupt surroundings of our courts, living as they do 

 in remote villages in a wild part of the country. 



Another subject regarding tigers, on which writers differ 

 greatly, is that of " roaring." Some, and I believe the majority, 

 have it that tigers, like lions, are much addicted to it, and 

 resembling Captain Rice's tigers, roar when roused, when 

 charging, and when wounded, besides doing so at other times, 

 while a few maintain that they rarely do so, the sound emitted 

 being a hoarse, guttural growl, more or less prolonged. Perhaps 

 there is, after all, no real difference of opinion, the " roar " of 

 one sportsman being the growl of another ; at all events, it 

 is a most terrible sound of concentrated rage, ferocity, and 

 resistless power, which must be heard to be fully realised. I 

 do not think that I have heard above half-a-dozen times any- 

 thing which can be properly styled a roar, and then it was 

 the calling of tigers and tigresses from different jungles at 

 the pairing season. 



The ordinary sound heard at night when the animal is 

 prowling about, is a low, long-drawn moan, and sometimes 

 only a hoarse grunt, a whine, or a kind of sniff, these last being 

 the sounds generally heard in menageries. Colonel Gordon 

 Gumming truly remarks (" Wild Men and Wild Beasts," 

 page 164) " A tiger, when lying wounded in a thicket, will 

 sometimes growl, but when he charges, his cry is more of a 

 deep cavernous grunt, very horrible to hear, and well cal- 

 culated to try a man's nerves. On one or two rare occasions 

 I have heard a tiger roar, and have oftentimes heard him 

 growl, but the war-cry which he gives when charging is quite 

 distinct from either of these." 



A tiger and tigress separated by open ground, which they 

 fear to cross in daylight, will call loudly to each other all day 

 long at short intervals till nightfall, when they will meet, and 

 then will ensue a caterwauling of the orthodox house-top sort, 

 but of a most terrific and magnificent loudness. Conceive a 

 chorus got up by a hundred pairs of cats, multiply copiously, 

 and even then you will fail to realise the awful sounds. Should 



