130 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. X. 



him, one by the left eye and the other by the right ear. It was all up with 

 the stag now, and he ran in circles, and from side to side, trying to shake 

 off the dogs, falling repeatedly, and screaming dolefully the whole time. 

 When we overtook the hunt, the stag was lying dead, and the wild dogs 

 slunk off at our approach, I found the left eye of the stag torn out, and 

 the right ear torn off. It is simply marvellous how the wild dog managed 

 to cling to the eye ; but the Chenchus affirm that wild dogs always seize their 

 game by the eyes, if possible. In this case, the wild dog we saw on the stag's 

 back must have surprised the animal when it was lying down. 



It is significant that all the jungle tribes of India— scattered all over the 

 Peninsula, who hold no communication with each other — positively affirm 

 that the wild dogs attack and overcome tigers. I have heard the tale from the 

 Kaders of the Annamallais, the Kurumhers of the Wynaad, the Khoncls of the 

 Ganjam Maliahs, and the Chenchus of the Nullamallais. I treated it at first 

 with orthodox contempt. My scepticism, however, was shaken when I saw 

 a Chenchu woman, who had been out in the forest picking mowhra flowers? 

 rush into the Chenchu settlement, where I was encamped, and incoherently 

 relate to her tribes-people how she had just seen a tiger in full flight pursued 

 by a large pack of wild dogs. It was evident that the Chenchus fully believed 

 their country-woman's story, for they immediately abandoned their avoca- 

 tions and set out to bring in the tiger's body, in the confident assurance that 

 the dogs would overtake and kill it. They did not return until the night- 

 fall, when they informed me they had tracked the pugs of the fugitive tiger 

 and the pursuing dogs to a point where the thickness of the jungle had 

 enabled " stripes " to give his enemies the slip. They demurred to the suggestion 

 I made that the tiger may have beaten the -dogs off, and pointed out that in 

 that case one or more dogs would have been killed, whose carcases they could 

 not fail to have found. No one who saw the woman when she rushed in 

 with her news could doubt the fact that she spoke the truth, and this 

 convinced me that tigers at least fly from wild dogs on occasion. Subsequent- 

 ly I was afforded, if not positive, at least pretty convincing proof that this 

 is not only the case, but that tigers are actually killed by wild dogs. I had 

 wounded a tiger, and a fortnight afterwards heard that a tiger had been found 

 dead in the forest at least fifteen miles from the spot where I had inflicted 

 the wound. I at once concluded that the tiger must be the one I bad wound- 

 ed, and, repairing to the spot, took from the people who found the animal 

 the skin, skull and claws, and gave them a present for their discovery. They, 

 however, surrendered the tiger's spoils very reluctantly, vehemently maintain- 

 ing that it had been killed by wild dogs. I rejoined that, if this was the case, 

 the dogs could only have killed the tiger in consequence of the wound I had 

 inflicted on the latter, which rendered it unequal to beating them off. The 

 very next week, however, another tiger was found dead, and some days 

 afterwards, a third one ! Now, I am persuaded that these last two tigers — if 

 not the whole three — must have been killed by wild dogs, as the Chenchus 



