THE TIGER IN BOOKS 
from timidity to reckless bravado with season, mood, and in- 
dividual temperament. The tigers of India and the Malayan 
countries, at least, have furnished material for a large library 
of books written by men who have studied their subject with 
close observation along the ridge of a rifle barrel, as well as by 
more scientific persons. Sir Joseph Fayrer devoted a whole 
volume ™ to this animal; the general writers, Jerdon, Sterndale, 
Blanford, Lydekker, and other Asiatic specialists, give it much 
space in their faunal zodlogies; and it is the star subject in those 
many admirable books by Anglo-Indian sportsmen which form 
so valuable a part of the literature of natural history. Fore- 
most among these men are Cumming, Campbell, Bevan, 
Shakspear, Baker, Inglis, Pollok, Rice, Leveson, Brown, 
Kinloch, Sanderson, Macintyre, Barras, Forsyth, and Whitney, 
all of whom must be read if one is to become really ac- 
quainted with the large animals of the East. This mass of 
material compasses a circle of information as to tigers equaled 
in the case of few other animals; and it would be hard to find 
in it a statement by one man that the tiger “never is” or “never 
does” thus and so, which is not met by a positive statement 
by another equally credible witness that he has seen the animal 
doing that very thing. We must conclude, then, as we did with 
regard to the lion, that it is unsafe to predict anything precisely 
as to its behavior; and that tigers differ in characteristics and 
qualities, quickly adapting their tactics to circumstances. 
The relation between the people of the Orient and the tiger 
is very different from that between the Africans and _ their 
lions. In the first place, the former is a far more formidable 
and dangerous animal, take him “by and large,” than the lion, — 
more quick, powerful, sly, subtle, and cunning. It is the opinion 
of the most experienced hunters that no man, however well 
trained and modernly armed, is a match for a tiger on foot. 
Certain bold hill tribes used, it is true, to surround a trouble- 
some tiger with strong nets, and then spear him to death through 
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