1062 



MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 



No. I.— NOTES ON TIGERS. 

 With reference to Mr. Pitman's note under the above heading (Vol. 

 XXI, No. 2, page 657) I would draw attention to Capt. Forsyth's remarks 

 in " the Highlands of Central India/' pp. 267, et seq., 1899 edition. He 

 states that regular cattle-lifters are known to natives as "oontia bcu/li" 

 from his faintly striped coat resembling the colour of a camel. The 

 author's explanation is that cattle-lifters are usually larger, older, and 

 heavier animals than game killers and have taken to a cattle diet owing 

 to a decreasing activity with advancing age. He wrote : " The larger and 

 older the animal, the more yellow his coat becomes and the fainter and 

 further apart are the stripes." 



CoiMBATOEE, IQth May 1912. C. E. 0. FISCHER, i.f.s. 



In the last issue of the Journal Mr. Pitman contributes two letters 

 about tiger in the C. P. His experience of three cubs to the litter is un- 

 usual. I have shot and seen shot 8 or 10 tigresses, and I have not found 

 more than two cubs carried. I have recently come across a tigress run- 

 ning with three cubs, one of which I shot. It was about three years old 

 but the other two appeared to be a year old. As regards colouration in 

 the hot weather Mr. Pitman's experience agrees with mine. The regular 

 cattle killer is a fat beast, and his colour in the hot weather is very pale. 

 The tiger who lives chiefly on game in the interior of forests is a much 

 harder animal and keeps his colour even in the summer months. It is 

 probably not a matter of protective colouring for the tiger in the daylight 

 is always very conspicuous, his colour being obviously intended for the 

 twilight. The darker colour of the tiger that does not live on cattle is 

 probably due to his greater fitness. 



Balaghat, C.P., Uh Mmj 1912. F. DEWAR, i.c.s. 



Mr. Pitman refers to the number of cubs in the tigress's litter in your 

 issue of the 31st March last. I believe that four is not an unusual number 

 to be found in the foetus stage, but my experience goes to show that 

 tigresses are seldom accompanied by more than two cubs, which points to 

 the probability of not more than that number surviving. 



As regards colouration of tigers, the differences noted by Mr. Pitman 

 are probably due principally to age. At the same time animals inhabiting 

 dense jungle are likely to be darker coloured than those of more open 

 localities. 



As tigers grow in age and weight, they are probably more addicted to 

 cattle killing than game killing ; it is an easier occupation. Old tigers lose 



