138 
SCENES IN INDIA. 
and buffaloes. They are even said to hunt the tiger, 
which they surround, and having wetted their thick 
bushy tails with their own secretions, whisk them in 
the tiger’s eyes, and while the enraged animal is 
suffering from this unexpected infliction, they fall up- 
on it in a body, and it thus becomes a comparatively 
easy prey. I state this upon the testimony of the na- 
tives, who relate it as a generally known and admitted 
fact. 
The claws of these dogs are exceedingly strong and 
sharp, approaching nearer to those of the feline than 
the canine races. Thus armed, their great strength 
and ferocity render them formidable even to the most 
savage beasts of the forests. They always tear out 
the eyes of their prey; their attack is therefore in- 
variably at the head. Though not extremely swift of 
foot, yet such is their patience and capability of en- 
durance, that they proceed regularly through the jun- 
gle in the track of their victims, until the latter are 
exhausted ; they then commit frightful havoc among 
the herds of harmless animals. When urged by ex- 
treme hunger, they have been known to attack and 
destroy travellers, though they are so alarmed at the 
discharge of fire-arms, that a pistol loaded with pow- 
der is a sufficient security against any invasion from 
those ferocious creatures. 
These dogs are found in most of the hilly dis- 
tricts, but are said to abound chiefly in the western 
ghauts. Very little seems to be known of their pecu- 
liar habits, and I believe the species has not hither- 
to been noticed by European naturalists. They are 
not frequently seen, and from their natural ferocity 
