The Cat Tribe. 71 



Should he happen to miss his aim, as does some- 

 times happen, he seldom or never repeats his attack, 

 but seems bewildered, and mostly slinks away among 

 the bushes. Should a number of people be together, 

 he always selects the last of them, so that in tiger- 

 hunting the post of honour is, as in a retreat, in the 

 rear. 



The natives divide tigers into three kinds, namely, 

 the Hunting tigers, the Cattle-eaters, and the Man- 

 eaters. 



The first are the younger animals, which are strong 

 and active enough to hunt prey for themselves. The 

 natives do not try to destroy these animals, and find 

 them rather beneficial than otherwise, because they 

 keep down the antelope herds that make havoc in 

 the grain-fields. 



The second are the older animals, which can no 

 longer trust to the chase for food, but hang about 

 villages for the purpose of pouncing upon any stray 

 cattle that may come in their way. 



No less than seven such tigers have been driven out 

 of one cover, so that the destruction which they work 

 can easily be imagined. 



Their mode of attack is always the same. They do 

 not knock down their prey with a blow from the paw, 

 as is generally imagined, but seize it by the nape of 

 the neck, and with both paws on the head, twist its 

 neck. 



A single tiger has been known to destroy annually 

 between sixty and seventy head of cattle, none cost- 

 ing less than five pounds, and many being worth 

 double the money. These cattle-eaters are curiously 

 fastidious. When they have killed an ox, they drag it 

 to their feeding-place, and then open and clean the 

 body as neatly as any butcher could do, always putting 

 the offal at some distance from the meat. 



