IN CAPTIVITY IN LOWER BENGAL. 49 



and injuries is to prevent their getting fly-blown, and with this object 

 a weak solution of corrosive sublimate (1 in 1,000 or 1,500) is con- 

 stantly applied by a garden syringe. Where the patient is tame or 

 young it is taken out and kept in a cage, and the wound dressed several 

 times during the day, so long as granulation does not set in. 



Observations on the habits of Tigers. 



Tigers differ in temper and habits as much as they do in their 

 external appearance. Some are comparatively good-tempered, others 

 cross and sulky. Those brought up in captivity are generally milder 

 in disposition, and are sometimes tame enough to allow the keepers 

 and others to handle them, but their temper can never be absolutely 

 trusted. It is a marked peculiarity of tigers that even the tamest 

 become savage at feeding time. An instance, on the other hand, is 

 known of a tigress dropping the food which it had in its mouth 

 and hastening to receive the caresses and attentions to which it was 

 accustomed almost every morning. As specimens for exhibition in a 

 menagerie, tigers which are not shy and do not object to visitors stand- 

 ing near the cage are always more valuable than newly-caught beasts, 

 which being wild and timid can seldom be seen to advantage. They 

 either pass their days in the inner den, or, if shut out, lie motion- 

 less in one corner of the den, or remain in a chronic state of fury and 

 alarm. Some take a long time to become accustomed to their altered 

 situation, others soon become reconciled to their new surroundings. 

 Some tigers have been found to be in a very nervous state on arrival, 

 and remain so for a long time ; others never become habituated to 

 captivity at all. One of two tigresses from B>anchi simply starved 

 herself to death, although everything possible was tried to induce her 

 to eat and take to her new home. Her companion, who was equally 

 alarmed at first, and for whose life also very slender hopes were enter- 

 tained, at last yielded to the temptation which live kid and fowl daily 

 offered. Apparently trivial cases sometimes frighten an otherwise 

 tame tiger. A perfectly tame young tiger was living in the garden 

 some time ago ; the animal having been in the habit of lying on the 

 wet floor of the outer den every morning, it was decided to place a 

 wooden platform there, in addition to the one already provided in 

 the inner chamber. Although there was nothing peculiar about the 

 new platform, which had been made in the same style as the one it 

 was accustomed to sleep upon every night, the sight of it appeared to 

 frighten the poor animal out of its senses : it became terribly alarmed 

 and jumped about the cage in great excitement, till at last it rushed 

 with tremendous force into the inner compartment, from which it did not 

 emerge for several days. When the platform was removed the animal 

 became quiet again. Even the most ferocious tigers are great cowards, 

 so that they soon begin to dread the cane and recognise its authority. 



Tigers often fight each other through the bars which separate 

 their outer dens. Serious consequences having sometimes resulted from 

 some of these quarrels, the grated partitions were at first boarded 

 up to about 3 feet 6 inches from the floor. This was, however, 

 insufficient to check their pugnacious propensities effectually. Being 

 determined to fight, they would manage it either by standing on their 

 hind legs or sometimes by suddenly jumping up against the gratiugs 



