216 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTEAL INDIA 



cattle-lifting? Or has the difEerence of their pursuits, 

 continued for generations, actually resulted in separate 

 breeds, each more adapted for its hereditary method of 

 existence ? I, myself, believe the former to be the truth, 

 and that there really is only one variety of tiger in all 

 peninsular India. It is only to extreme specimens that 

 the above distinctive names are applied; and the great 

 majority are of an intermediate character, and not dis- 

 tinguished by any particular name. The larger and older 

 the animal, the more yeUow his coat becomes, and the 

 fainter and further apart are the stripes. Small tigers 

 are sometimes so crowded with the black stripes as almost 

 to approach the appearance of a melanoid variety. A few 

 specimens of white tigers with fulvous stripes have also 

 been mentioned, though I have never heard of one in 

 Central India. The tiger, like all animals that I am 

 acquainted with, is subject to slight variations of appear- 

 ance and conformation amongst individuals; and local 

 circumstances, and perhaps " natural selection," may tend 

 to give the race something of peculiarity in different 

 localities. But none of these has as yet, I believe, reached 

 the point of even permanent variation. 



It is useless to devote much time to hunting the hill 

 tigers that prey on game alone. They are so scattered 

 over extensive tracts of jungle, and are so active and wary, 

 that it is only by accident that they are ever brought 

 to bag. 



Favourably situated covers are almost certain to hold 

 one or more cattle-eating tigers during the hot weather; 

 and however many are killed, others will shortly occupy 

 their place. A favourite resort for these tigers is in the dense 

 thickets formed of jaman, karonda, and tamarisk — ever- 

 green bushes whose shade is thickest in the hot weather, and 

 which grow in islands and on the banks of partially dried- 

 up stream-beds. A thick and extensive cover of this sort, 

 particularly if the neighbouring river banks are furnished, 

 as is often the case, with a thick scrubby jungle of thorny 

 bushes, through which ravines lead up to the open country 

 where cattle graze, is a certain find in the hot season. Some- 

 times considerable gatherings of tigers take place in such 



