154 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
A CHAT ABOUT INDIAN WILD BEASTS. 
By Coronet F. T. Portox. 
Tue Tiger (felis tigris). 
ForEIGNERS say that wherever Englishmen travel the cry is 
‘*Let us go and kill something.” This alludes, of course, to our 
love of sport, and they rather laugh at our enthusiasm for slaying 
the fere nature; but I attribute two-thirds of our acquired 
possessions to the innate love of sport implanted in the breasts 
of our islanders. Our pioneers have generally been men in search 
of game. To be a successful sportsman aman must study the 
habits, manners, and customs of the beasts he intends to hunt. 
I propose to relate here certain facts which can well be impressed 
upon the minds of naturalists as well as others. 
India is our great nursery, and in it game is still plentiful. 
Hog hunting is pre-eminently the grandest sport. After it comes 
Tiger-shooting off Klephants and out of howdahs. Tigers can be 
shot on foot only in Central India. Where Tigers abound, the 
grass is too high and too thick for a man on foot to have a fair 
chance. But mounted on a fairly staunch Elephant, the pursuit 
is most enjoyable. | 
It has been a disputed point how a Tiger strikes down his 
prey. A noted sportsman wrote as follows: —“ Some years back, 
at Pykara, not far from the bungalow, a Tiger took a fancy to a 
Todah (a hill man) in preference to the Buffaloes he was tending. — 
Two other Todahs were witnesses of the affair, and they described 
how the Tiger behaved. Having caught the man, he amused 
himself for some time by letting him go, and then dodging him 
as the poor victim tried to escape, before killing him outright, 
notwithstanding the shouts and yells of the two spectators.” 
There are divers opinions as to the exact mode by which a 
Tiger takes its prey. Popularly he is supposed to lie in ambush, 
and spring on his victim as it passes his lair; or, by watching at 
a pool, awaits the arrival of animals in quest of water. These 
