76 Anecdotal Natural History. 



native chiefs, too, protect it for hunting purposes, just 

 as the fox is preserved in our own country. 



The tiger is a good swimmer, and has even been 

 known to board vessels lying at a considerable distance 

 from the shore, causing the greatest consternation 

 among the crew. 



The young of the tiger are two or three in number, 

 and do not arrive at their full growth until three or 

 four years have passed. 



Owing to the colouring of the skin, to which allusion 

 has been made, the tiger can with difficulty be dis- 

 covered, even when its haunts are known. Hunters 

 say that a tiger can hide itself in places where a rat 

 could hardly find cover. 



Practised hunters are always on the look-out for 

 indications of the tiger's presence, one of which is a 

 bush covered with berries. If no tiger were hidden 

 there, the monkeys would not have left a berry on the 

 bush, but as from their strongholds in the treetops 

 they can see the enemy, they take care to keep their 

 distance, and so let the berries remain on the branches. 



Peacocks, again, are mostly found in places where 

 the tiger lives. The bodies and feathers of dead pea- 

 fowl are sometimes found strewn about a tiger's den. 

 The natives account for this fact by saying that the 

 tigress teaches her growing cubs how to hunt prey for 

 themselves, and that they practise on peafowl before 

 they can aspire to antelopes or cattle. 



As to the size of a full-grown tiger, it varies almost 

 as much as does the height of man. The average 

 length of an adult male tiger is about nine feet six 

 inches, measured from the tip of the snout to the end 

 of the tail. A ten-feet male is as unusual an exception 

 to the ordinary dimensions of tigers as is a man six 

 feet three inches in height among ourselves. Measure- 

 ments of the skin after it is removed from the animal 



