FLESH-EATING MAMMALS. 



55 



mate looked up and gazed in the direction of its companion, and then turned 

 its head as if to flee, but before it could do so a dark object rose out of the 

 ground, as it were, and seized it by the throat, and flung it on its side. My 

 horse had also caught sight of the dark object, and instinct told him at once 

 what it was, for he galloped like mad, and never stopped till he got to the 

 bungalow. It was fully an hour before I could assemble the villagers and 

 return to the spot, where we found both buffaloes stone dead. In both cases 

 the bite was on the under part of the throat, so as to close the windpipe and 

 prevent the animal making any cry. The necks also appeared to have been 

 broken by a sudden wrench of the head to one side, by the tremendously 

 powerful fore-arm of the tiger. There appeared to have been very little 

 struggle, and death must have been almost instantaneous. Now, what I 

 would particularly like to draw attention to, is the stealthy method of attack. 

 There was absolutely no noise — no roar, scarcely a rustling of the bushes 

 when the second animal was struck down — and very little of the tiger to be 

 seen. Had not my eyes been on the buffaloes at the time, I hardly think I 

 should have been disturbed at all. In fact, I should not have known that the 

 buffaloes had been killed by a tiger within a few yards of me. I scarcely saw 

 the tiger at all — only his head, which appeared to rise up out of the ground and 

 seize the second buffalo by the throat." A tiger almost invariably commences 

 his meal on the hind-quarters ; and neither this animal nor the lion are by 

 any means averse to carrion. Both have a very similar roar, although that of 

 the tiger is but rarely uttered ; and both differ from the majority of cats in 

 their inability to climb trees. In common with cats in general, lions and tigers 

 go about either singly, in pairs, or in small family parties, and although a few 

 may, it is said, combine to drive their prey to one another, they never hunt in 

 packs after the manner of dogs. The stealthy manner in which cats stalk, 

 with their body elongated to its utmost extent and almost touching the ground, 

 and the rigid tail occasionally twisting nervously, is well known to all. 



Among the smaller species of the genus, the clouded leopard {¥. nebulosa) 

 and the marbled cat {F. marmorata), of the Oriental countries, may be cited 

 as excellent examples of the clouded type of coloration. The Bornean Bay 

 cat {F. badia) is one of the few uniformly-coloured species ; a second being 

 the South American eyra (F. eyra), which is more remarkable on account of 

 its elongated and weasel-like form. One of the most variable of all is the 

 Oriental leopard-cat (F. bengale'nsis). The African serval (F. serval) is a long- 

 legged and short-tailed species, in which the dark spots are solid ; while the 

 caffer cat (l\ caffra) of the same country is generally regarded as the ancestral 

 stock, of the domestic cats of Europe, although there has probably been a 

 considerable amount of crossing with the wild oat {F. catus), which has led 

 to the prevalence of the tabby type of coloration. In South America the 

 very variable ocelot (F. pardalis) exhibits a modification of the clouded type 

 of coloration, while the tiger-oat {F. tigrina) is more distinctly spotted ; the 

 pampas cat showing a striped pattern. The jungle-cat {F. chans), which is 

 common to India and Africa, together with certain allied Asiatic species, 

 forms a transition fi'om the more typical cats to the lynxes, the latter being 

 characterised by the long pencils of hairs terminating the ears and the 

 moderately long or short tail. In the caracal (F. caracal), which is a uniformly- 

 coloured species common to India and Africa, and connecting the jungle-cat 

 with the true lynxes, the tail is of considerable length ; but in the latter 

 group, all the members of which are confined to the Northern Hemisphere, 

 it is very short, and the pellage is always spotted, at least during some 



