THE ROTAL TIGEB OF BENGAL. 31 



ihinisfcer, Jung Bahadur, who was accompanied 

 by about 400 elephants, to have seen, when the 

 tiger was surrounded in long grass and low scrubby 

 jungle, that as the circle of elephants gradually closed 

 in, numerous pea-fowl were enclosed also, and be- 

 came so frightened by the towering wall of howdahs, 

 that some were picked up by the piadehs, or foot-men 

 accompanying the elephants, being too frightened 

 and confused to rise from the long grass and fly over 

 and beyond the mighty circle by which they were 

 hemmed in. In such grassy places a tiger, with his 

 silent and stealthy tread, would easily approach, and 

 might seize the birds before they could disentangle 

 themselves and escape out of the long grass. It is 

 said that the tiger sometimes attacks the alligators, 

 or gurrials, as they lie basking on the banks of the 

 rivers, or on sand-banks, the margins of which are 

 often fringed with the tamarisk, long grass, or other 

 congenial cover. This may be possible when other 

 food has failed, and it is said that it occasionally 

 happens that he falls a victim in the attempt, more 

 than one instance being recorded of his having been 

 seized by the powerful jaws of the alligator, dragged 

 into the river, and drowned. There is a fine illus- 

 tration of a tiger being so treated by a large 

 alligator, in a picture by Wolf, recently published. 

 As the tiger is found on the margins of swamps and 

 rivers which teem with these great saurians, it is 

 possible that such an incident may occasionally 

 occur, though I confess I feel inclined to relegate 



