48 WILD ANIMALS. 



no incentive, but prompted by what Artemus Ward -would 

 describe as " pure cussedness." 



So far from groaning under the heavy loss, the natives in 

 many places submit to it from superstitious motives, tigers 

 being venerated animals ; but in other districts the Government is 

 constantly urged to encourage a war of extermination on the 

 destructive creatures. • Many experienced officials, however, state 

 this would be unwise, and declare that interference in the 

 balance of Nature in the country cannot be done with impunity. 

 This opens up too wide a question for argument in these pages ; 

 suffice it to say that their reasoning is drawn from the fact that in 

 certain parts of India, where the predatory animals have been 

 nearly exterminated, the wild hogs, deer, and other animals, upon 

 whom Nature intended them to prey, have multiplied to such an 

 extent that the crops are seriously damaged by the countless 

 herds feeding at night. It is asserted that a few tigers would 

 keep down that increase over a vast extent of country, and, by 

 preventing such devastation, do good instead of harm, and thereby 

 compensate for the indirect expense of their support. However, 

 tigers are getting scarcer year by year, and in some districts 

 where they formerly abounded but few, if any, are now to be 

 found. 



Those tigers which prefer game mostly confine themselves to 

 the hill districts or the feeding-grounds generally of their prey. 

 They are noticeably lighter and smaller in every way than the 

 habitual cattle-killers. 



Of the brutes which become man-eaters we hear a great deal ; 

 they appear to be chiefly old animals, and, strange to say, are 

 females in the majority of cases. One writer says : " When 

 goaded by hunger, nothing can daunt the temerity or repress the 

 ravages of this fierce marauder. Under this impulse the tiger will 

 quit his ambush in the woods for the public roads or highway, and 

 abandoning the failing chase of the wild beasts of the forest, 

 turn upon a surer and more noble prey, and from that moment 

 man becomes his favourite quarry. In a single district, of rather 

 limited dimensions, no fewer than 84 inhabitants had been de- 

 voured during the preceding year by the tigers of the neighbour- 



