ON THE HABITS OF TIGERS 95 
cubs, even when they are only half grown; but she 
knows where they are, and either returns to them 
or attracts them from a distance by her cries. That 
she continues watchful over them is shown by the 
fact that, during a beat in the Sohelwa forests, a 
tigress, who was safely behind the guns, walked 
through them and towards the beaters as soon as 
the drive began, and I had to shoot her to prevent 
any possibility of injury to the men ; her three cubs 
were driven out in front of the line of beaters, and 
one of them savagely struck a coolie on the hand— 
a fact I recall, as it was the only occasion in which 
I had a man injured when hunting in India. 
So soon as the canine teeth are grown, the young 
tigers either wander away from the mother, or are 
driven off by the tiger who has appropriated her. 
The male tiger does not seem to be addicted to 
infanticide, though, when they are in confinement, 
this crime is reported as not uncommon ; in fact, I 
have seen him in company with cubs of all ages, and 
it is probably the difficulty of finding food for many 
voracious mouths that ultimately enforces a separa- 
tion. The cubs after becoming independent doubtless 
have a poor time until the impetus of hunger teaches 
them to become careful hunters; perhaps it is for 
this reason that the young tiger frequently does 
wanton mischief in the forest and to the village 
cattle, and is most easily roused to fury. They con- 
tinue to increase in length, and more so in bulk, for 
many years if they escape injury to teeth and claws ; 
but with regard to the size they attain I am unable 
to make any definite assertion, beyond stating that 
I personally have seen at least two hundred dead 
