364 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



whereas, in the province of Assam 81 persons were killed by 

 tigers, whilst 436 tigers were killed. Some provinces are almost 

 free from tigers. In the Punjab only one man was killed by a 

 tiger, and only four tigers were destroyed. In the province of 

 Bombay only 8 persons were killed by tigers, though 97 tigers 

 forfeited their lives. It will have been observed that 1169 of 

 the deaths are attributed to other unspecified animals ; whilst 

 6852 animals coming under this indefinite heading were killed. 

 From some of the details which have been given, particularly in 

 Bengal, it appears that Jackals take the highest place in this 

 class, and it is probable that many more young children are 

 carried off by Jackals than the returns show. A woman, whose 

 hut is on the outskirts of a village surrounded by trees and low 

 brushwood, may go over to a neighbour's house to borrow a little 

 rice or some fire- wood. Her absence may be but for a minute, 

 but when she returns, tbe little child that she left playing at her 

 door has disappeared. No cry was heard, for the Jackal seized 

 the child by the back of tbe neck, and death was instantaneous. 

 The men of the village are away at their daily work in the fields, 

 and before the afflicted woman can summon her neighbours to 

 the rescue, every morsel of hei'iniissing child has been devoured 

 by the Jackal and its hungry whelps. 



With regard to the unspecified 6852 wild animals which 

 killed 1169 persons, some almost comic particulars have been 

 given in the reports of the different provinces. For instance, 

 in Madras they include wild boars, bisons, mad jackals, and 

 crocodiles. In Bombay the list embraces scorpions, mad dogs, 

 mad camels, mad jackals, wild bogs, stray dogs, and bulls. In 

 Bengal they consist of wild boars, buffaloes, crocodiles, mad 

 dogs, sharks, moles, oxen, pigs, scorpions, wasps, and koias. We 

 regret that we are not acquainted with the last-named animal, 

 the koia ; and it is rather a novelty to find wasps entered as 

 wild beasts. The Mole was fatal to one of our greatest English 

 monarch s, and therefore may have acquired high rank and 

 dignity in the eyes of the educated native clerk by whom the 

 return was most probably compiled ; whilst the same authority 

 professes to distinguish between Alligators and Crocodiles ; and 

 it is an addition to zoological knowledge when a Shark is 

 classified as a wild beast. The statistical compiler has also 

 noted a difference between wild boars, boars, and pigs. 



