28 TEE EOTAL TIGER OF BENGAL. 



in fact, to promote the growth of the next year's 

 crop, and thus, what was formerly a dense and 

 endless cover, now becomes an open plain or cleared 

 out forest. The heat too becomes intense. At these 

 seasons the tigers are found in patches of long grass, 

 the nurkool or nul, which are kept fresh and green 

 by pools of water or swamps. Here, and in the 

 edges of the forest, they lie at rest during the heat 

 of the day, sheltered from the rays of the sun by the 

 tall reed-like grass, which is from twenty to thirty 

 feet high, and cooled by the moisture. These 

 swamps, or baghars, as they are called in Oude, 

 are often treacherously deep, and are dangerous to 

 the elephants from the phussun or quagmire so often 

 found there. These grassy retreats occur on the 

 outskirts of the forest, frequently near villages or 

 gowries (cow-feeding stations), and the tigers in- 

 habiting them become the pest and scourge of the 

 place, for though shy and solitary they must have 

 food, and wHl come where it is most easily obtained, 

 and their wants are not supplied by less than an 

 average of about a cow every third day; in some 

 cases where he has fallen into evil ways, and has 

 found out that it is easy and pleasant to kUl a man, 

 he causes great destruction of human life, and he 

 wiU soon depopulate a village by killing some, and 

 frightening away the rest of the inhabitants. He is 

 not by any means confined to these grassy plains or 

 swamps, but is found also in the forests, and indeed 

 wherever the necessary shelter, food, and water exist. 



