158 
WILD BEASTS AND THEIR WAYS 
CHAP. 
The attack of a large tiger is terrific, and the 
effect may be well imagined of an animal of such 
vast muscular proportions, weighing between 400 
and 500 lbs., springing with great velocity, 
and exerting its momentum at the instant that it 
seizes a bullock by the neck. It is supposed by 
the natives that the tiger, when well fastened upon 
the crest, by fixing its teeth in the back of the neck 
at the first onset, continues its spring so as to pass 
over the animal attacked. This wrenches the neck 
suddenly round, and as the animal struggles, the 
dislocation is easily effected. The tiger then 
changes the hold to underneath the throat, and 
drags the body to some convenient retreat, where 
the meal may be commenced in security. With 
very few exceptions the tiger breaks the neck 
of every animal it kills. Some persons have 
imagined that this is done by a blow of the paw, 
but this is an error. The tiger does not usually 
strike (like the lion), but it merely seizes with its 
claws, and uses them to clutch firm hold, and to 
lacerate its victim. I have seen several examples 
of the tiger’s attack upon man, and in no instance 
has the individual suffered from the shock of any 
blow ; the tiger has seized, and driven deeply its 
claws into the flesh, and with this tremendous 
purchase it has held the victim, precisely as the 
hands of a man would clutch a prisoner; at the 
same time it has taken a firm hold with its teeth, 
and either killed its victim by a crunch of the jaws, 
or broken the shoulder-blade. In attacking man. 
