THE TIGEE. 51 



hind quarters or legs, trying to hamstring or upset their intended 

 victim. He also refutes the story so frequently narrated in 

 books of natural history, that the tiger kills its prey with the 

 stroke of the paw, and then sucks the blood from the jugular 

 vein with intense relish. He says that, judging from his large 

 experience, and from descriptions given him by men who had 

 seen the animals attack cattle scores of times, there is no founda- 

 tion for the story. There is, however, another well-known writer, 

 who describes having personally seen it done, and an extra- 

 ordinary case of the act being photographed seems to place it 

 beyond doubt that they do kill with the blow, if- not invariably, 

 at least occasionally. The following letter from a correspondent 

 appeared in a Madras paper a little over a year ago : — " So far as 

 I can ascertain, a photograph of a tiger in the act of striking 

 down a large animal was never taken until this week, when 

 I secured a negative of- a tigef killing a buffalo. I had focussed 

 on the buffalo, which was tied to the stump of a tree in the middle 

 of a field, and had just put a dry plate in the camera, when a tiger 

 came up and struck down the buffalo with a single blow of his 

 paw. My camera was not ten yards from the buffalo, and the 

 tiger might just as well have come at me if he had chosen to do 

 so ; but fortunately he selected the buffalo instead, and then I 

 took advantage of my position and released the spring shutter 

 just as he had given the buffalo his knock-down blow. The 

 negative, I am sorry to say, is not a good one ; but it is, neverthe- 

 less, interesting, because it throws some light on that vexed 

 question, ' How does a tiger kill his prey ? ' In the photograph, 

 which I have before me as I write, the tiger is seen standing on 

 bis hind-legs, which are bent ; his body is inclined to the ground 

 at an angle of about 45° ; his tail is straight, except the tip, 

 which is curled upwards ; and the right fore-paw is seen above 

 and the left below the buffalo's neck. The head of the buffalo 

 covers the shoulders and heart of the tiger, whose head appears 

 above his horns ; his back is nearly level, but his front legs are 

 doubled up under him, and he is just in the act of falling. The 

 head is drooping and lifeless, and the whole appearance of the 

 buffalo tends to confirm the generally-accepted opinion, that the 



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