24G JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol, XVII. 



a small lamp being tied over a kill about 10 ft. high, but will come and feed. 

 I have known three occasions when this has been tried, and each time a tiger 

 has come to feed upon the carcase. 



F. 0. B. DENNYS, 

 Sungkai, Peeak. Assistant Controller of Forests. 



Sir, — I was much interested to read in your last issue the communication 

 from your correspondent, Mr. F. O. B. Dennys, as to the manner in which tiger 

 kill their prey, since what he says concerning the method adopted by a tiger to 

 kill a heavy horned animal is precisely the same as that I have myself recorded 

 from personal observation in the case of a lion. Besides the specific case re- 

 ferred to, of which I wrote a full description in the course of an article on the 

 lion, published in the Badminton volume on Big Game Shooting, I have examined 

 a good many other oxen, as well as buffaloes, which had been killed by a single 

 large male lion, and I always found that they had been seized in the same way 

 by the muzzle with one fore paw, and high up on the shoulder by the other. 

 Their necks were then dislocated, either by a sudden violent wrench, or by their 

 own weight in falling forward with their heads pulled in under their chests. 



W hen, however, an ox or a buffalo is killed by a family of lions, the unfor- 

 tunate animal is usually mauled and bitten all over, and in such a case its pit- 

 eous and long-continued bellowings prove conclusively that its sufferings are 

 very great, and that the idea, therefore, that carnivorous animals always kill 

 their prey painlessly is quite a mistaken one. It has always puzzled me to ac- 

 count for the fact that a party of four or five lions usually kill an ox or a buf- 

 falo slowly and very inartistically when there is a big male amongst them, which, 

 if he had been by himself, would have despatched his victim in a few seconds 

 of time by a wonderful combination of strength and skill. 



Possibly when a party of lions, consisting of an old male, two or three females, 

 and some well-grown cubs, are hunting together, the eagerness of the younger 

 animals prevents the old lion from carrying out his best method of attack, or 

 else, perhaps, he stands aside at first to give the less powerful members of his 

 family a little practice in killing. 



In the course of his interesting communication, Mr. Dennys says, " The old 

 idea of a tiger killing large game by a blow from his paw is nonsense," and this 

 remark again accords exactly with my experience with lions, which, I believe, 

 never attempt to kill a heavy animal with " a crushing blow of the paw," as has 

 so often been asserted. They use their claws to hold, and in so doing, and es- 

 pecially when trying to hold heavy animals in motion, often inflict terrible 

 lacerations ; but, to the best of my belief, they never strike heavy blows with 

 their paws, and, except when they break an animal's neck by a sudden wrench, 

 always kill by biting. 



When a lion moves the carcase of an ox or a horse, he holds it by the back 

 of the neck, and, lifting the weight of the head, and to a certain extent, of 

 course, of the fore quarters as well, drags it alongside of him. He holds small 



