“ KILLS” BY CARNIVOROUS ANIMALS. 635 
Among other instances of a similar character I can recall a typical 
case of a tiger that I did not shoot in the Surat Dangs. This animal, 
I calculated, must, during the night, have walked quite 15 miles. He 
killed a large cow early in the morning, dragged it some 50 yards (cf. 
Conditions IT and III), dropped it into a nullah with precipitous banks, 
and even covered it with leaves (Condition IV). Subsequent examina- 
tion of this “kill” showed, as I expected, that the cow had been 
seized by the throat (Condition I) and that Conditions V and IX were 
also fulfilled. In order to give some idea of the conflicting ways 
in which some authorities have dealt with this matter, I must, at the 
risk of appearing prolix, give at least one quotation at length :— 
“We often hear,” says Baldwin in his “ Large and Small Game of 
Bengal,” “of the tiger striking down his prey with his paw, and 
doubtless occasionally he does so, but I am of opinion that this is not 
his usual mode of proceeding: he more generally, I believe, springs 
from an ambush, or by grovelling along the ground approaches to 
within springing distance, then with a mighty bound, or succession 
of springs, he launches himself on his victim, and seizing it with 
his fangs by the back of the neck (not the throat) brings it to the 
ground, and then gives that fatal wrench or twist which dislocates 
the neck and at once puts an end to the struggle. I have examined 
the carcases of many scores of bullocks killed by tigers, and have 
in the great majority of cases found the neck broken, and the 
deep holes at the back of the neck caused by the tiger’s fangs. 
Sometimes, though certainly less often, I have discovered undoubted 
evidence that the dead bullock had, in the first instance, been felled 
by a blow from the terribie forearm of the tiger. Again we hear 
of the tiger, having despatched his victim, proceeding to drink the 
“blood from the neck, but this is never the case ; frequently there 
is very little blood to be seen on the dead bullock or deer. I have 
never noticed the veins in the throat of a carcase laid open or torn 
as if for the purpose of getting at the blood, and if the tiger were in 
the habit of lapping the blood of a creature just killed, there certainly 
would be marks to show this on the throat.” On this subject the 
author further observes :—“ Having dragged his victim under some 
bushes, into a clump of grass or a neighbouring nullah (cf. Conditions 
II, TI, and IV), he usually devours a portion of the carcase, com- 
10 
