l82 
POWER OF SCENT, 
that he takes them out with his mouth, much as a hawk picks 
a bird of his feathers ; sometimes in his eagerness to make 
his feast he tries to swallow the skin with the undergrowth of 
young quills, and I know of one instance where a fine tiger 
was choked to death by them. 
It has been stated that tigers hunt their prey by scent as 
dogs hunt a hare or fox, and that they can wind you as deer 
do. I have taken particular pains to ascertain whether this is 
the fact, and I am almost, I may say quite, sure that it is 
not ; although like all other animals they have large olfactory 
nerves they have not that peculiar sensitiveness of the organs 
of smell which prevails in the Canid^e or Cervidae. I have 
watched tigers over and over again when out after prey, and 
I never saw them put their nose to the ground or hunt by 
scent ; moreover they have no idea of taking advantage of the 
wind when stalking. I have seen two tigers watching a stag, 
like two cats watching a mousehole, with the wind blowing 
straight from them to the deer, which naturally soon made 
itself scarce. I maintain that if tigers added the power of 
hunting by scent, and stalking up wind, to their wonderful 
sight and keen sense of hearing, to say nothing of the 
absolute noiselessness of their movements, they w^ould seldom 
or never fail in securing their prey, and this would be against 
the law of nature, which always allows a certain number 
of chances to the weaker animals, otherwise they would be 
exterminated. 
I may here mention the curious behaviour of a tiger, 
which I have noticed more than once. Many of the woods 
on the Nieigherry plateau are isolated, and dotted about the 
open grassy hills and slopes, varying in size from a mere 
patch to several acres. On one occasion I was out looking 
