TEE EOTAL TIGER OF BENGAL. 53 



We have since Jieard that a native bringing toddy 

 from the plains to the hakery at Conoor, was seized 

 somewhere in the Conoor Ghat, and carried oif by a 

 tiger." 



One mode of effecting his death is to lay a bait 

 by tying up a cow or goat in some spot the tiger is 

 wont to frequent ; near this, on a machein or on 

 the branch of a tree or from behind some extem- 

 porised screen, the shikarie waits his approach at 

 night, and when the bait is seized takes aim, and 

 often succeeds in destroying him, though it not un- 

 frequently happens that in the uncertain light he 

 misses altogether or only wounds, in which case a 

 second chance is seldom obtained. It sometimes 

 happens that the sportsman, tired by waiting and 

 watching, falls asleep, and awakes only to see the 

 prey earned off, and too late to get an effective shot. 

 Many tigers are thus yearly destroyed, but still 

 numbers remain, and the destruction of life and 

 property caused by them goes on, though I am 

 inclined to think not to so great an extent as is 

 sometimes represented ; and when it is borne in mind 

 that the population of India, including the Native 

 States, is nearly 250,000,000, the proportion of deaths 

 is not so'large as it at "first sight seems to be, and 

 probably would not contrast so very unfavourably 

 with mortality from what shotdd be preventible 

 causes at home — railway accidents, for example ! 

 Far be it from me to suggest ought that might 

 appear to involve danger to human life, but I must 



