514 CARNIVORA 
ground in the vieinity of a village or gowrio, continuo its ravages, 
destroying one or two cows or bufliloes a week. It is very fond of 
the ordinary domestic cattle, which in the plains of India are 
generally weak, balf-starved, under-sized: creatures. One of these 
is easily struck down and carried or dragged off, ‘The smaller 
buffaloes are also easily disposed of ; but the buffalo bulls, and 
especially the wild ones, are formidable antagonists, and have 
often been known to beat the Tiger off, and even to wound him 
seriously.” 
In many districts of India the number of ‘Tigers has been very 
considerably diminished of late years. In somo other conntrios 
they appear, however, to be on the inerease ; thus according to 
one of the administration reports of Java laid before the Duteh 
Chambors, portions of that island are being depopulated through 
Tigers. In 1882 the population of a villago in the south-west of 
the Bantam province was removed and transferred to an islind olf 
the coast in consequence of the trouble caused to the people by 
Tigers. These animals have now become an intolerable pest in 
parts of the same province. The total population is about 600,000, 
and, in [887, sixty-one were killed by ‘Tigers, and in consequence 
of the dread existing among the people, it has been proposed to 
deport the inhabitants of the villages most. threatened to other 
parts of the country whore Tigers are not so common, and where 
they can pursue their agricultural occupations with a yreater 
degree of security. At present they foar to go anywhere near 
the borders of the forest. The people scem disinclined, or they 
lack the means and courage, to attack and destroy their cnemy, 
although considorable rewards aro offered by Government for the 
destruction of beasts of proy. In 1888 the reward for killing a 
Royal Tiger was raised to two hundred florins. It appears also that 
the immunity of the Tiger is in part due to superstition, for it is 
considered wrong to kill one unless he attacks first. or othorwise 
does injury 
The Leopard (2. pardus, Fig. 226), although belouging to the 
same restricted group as the two preceding species, is distinguished 
from both by its inferior size, and its coloration. The animal 
now commonly known as the Leopard was called Pard (adpdos and 
mapdudts) or Panther (rdvOyp) by tho ancients. Leopard (deo-pardus) 
is a later term, originally applied, it is believed, to the Chota or 
Hunting Leopard, upon the supposition that it was a creature 
intermediate between the Lion and the trne Pard. If so it) has 
heen completely transferred to the more common species, and 
though in this sense a porfectly unnecessary and unmenning term, 
has gradually superseded those by which this was originally known. 
Pard, so commonly used by Elizabethan authors, is now nearly 
obsolete in the Knglish language, and Panther has either become 
