24 TSE SOTAL TIBER OF SEN&AL. 



fresh and succulent grass that they find there. 

 The attack of the tiger is generally, though not 

 always, made in the night. He watches the cattle, 

 creeps stealthily out until within springing or rather 

 rushing distance, then, with a rush or bound and a 

 roar or deep growl, he seizes it by the throat and 

 drags or strikes it to the ground with his formidable 

 arm, fixes his fangs in the throat, his powerful fore 

 claws in the trunk or neck, and holds it there until 

 it is nearly or quite dead, when he drags it off to the 

 jungle to be devoured at leisure. The first morsels are 

 generally torn from the flank or hind quarter. Near 

 the "kill" is the lair or " beithuck," a space where the 

 grass is trodden down something like a hare's form. 

 From this he proceeds as his appetite prompts him to 

 the "kill," iintil it is eaten and even the bones gnawed, 

 by which time, owing to the heat of the weather, it 

 is far advanced in decomposition, and the " kill " is 

 revealed, not only by the odour, but by the flocks of 

 vultures, kites, crows, and adjutants wheeling and 

 soaring in the air above it, and by prowling jackals. 

 The vultures also sit with a gorged and sleepy 

 aspect in the branches of the surrounding trees, from 

 which they descend from time to time to make a 

 meal when the tiger has left it, or even to snatch a 

 morsel whilst he is feeding, and often disputing its 

 possession with him, a temerity for which they 

 sometimes pay with their lives from a sudden stroke 

 of his fore paw. 



When gorged with his first meal, the tiger is slug- 



