THE MOYAZ TIGES OF BENGAL. 23 



she separates from them. The young tigei* are far 

 more destructive than the old. ,The y will kill three 

 or four cows at _ a time^ whilst -the older and-rmore 

 experienced rarely- kill more than on% and— this =at 

 intervals of from three or four days to a week. For 

 this purpose the tiger will leave its retreat in the dense 

 jungle, proceed to the neighbourhood of a village or 

 gowrie, where cattle feed, and during the night will 

 steal on and strike down a bullock, drag it into a se- 

 cluded place, and then remain near the " murrie " or 

 " kill " for several days, until it has eaten it, when it 

 will proceed in search of a further supply, and having 

 found good hunting ground in the vicinity of a 

 village or gowrie, continue its ravages, destroying 

 one or two cows or buffaloes a week. It is very 

 fond of the ordinary domestic cattle which, in the 

 plains of India, are generally weak, half- starved, 

 under-sized creatures. One of these is easily struck 

 down and carried or dragged off. The smaller 

 buffaloes are also easily disposed of, but the buffalo 

 bulls, and especially the wild ones, are formidable 

 antagonists, and have often been known to beat the 

 tiger off, and even to wound him seriously with their 

 horns. 



Cattle and buffaloes especially, seem to have an in- 

 stinctive knowledge of the proximity of a tiger, pro- 

 bably from the scent, and one may generally guess 

 that a tiger is present in a swampy patch of long 

 grass if the cattle refuse to enter it, which they would 

 otherwise be only too glad to do, for the sake of the 



