Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 12.djvu/765

741 ANIMALS.] INDIA 741 WILD ANIMALS. Mammals. First among the wild animals of India must be mentioned the lion (Fdis leo), which is known to have been not uncommon within historical times in Hindustan Proper and the Punjab. At present, the lion is supposed to be confined to the sandy deserts of Guzerat. A peculiar variety is there found, marked by the absence of a mane ; but whether this variety deserves to be classed as a dis tinct species naturalists are not yet determined. The former extent of the lion s range, or at least the degree to which its presence impressed the imagination, may be inferred from the common personal names, Sinh or Sing, Sher, and Hyder, which all signify &quot; lion.&quot; The charac teristic beast of prey in India is the tiger (F. tigris), which is found in every part of the country from the slopes of the Himalayas to the Sundarban swamps. Sir Joseph Fayrer, the highest living authority on this subject, believes that 12 feet is the maximum length of the tiger, when measured from nose to tip of tail immediately after death. The advance of cultivation, even more than the incessant attacks of sportsmen, has gradually caused the tiger to become a rare animal in large tracts of country ; but it is scarcely probable that he will ever be exterminated from India. The malarious tardi fringing the Himalayas, the uninhabitable swamps of the Gangetic delta, and the wide jungles of the central plateau, are at present the chief home of the tiger. His favourite food appears to be deer, antelope, and wild hog. When these abound he will disregard domestic cattle. Indeed, the natives are disposed to consider him as in some sort their protector, as he saves their crops from destruction by the wild animals on which he feeds. But when once he develops a taste for human blood, then the slaughter he works becomes truly formidable. The confirmed man-eater, which is generally an old beast, disabled from overtaking his usual prey, seems to accumulate his tale of victims in sheer cruelty rather than for food. A single tiger is known to have killed 108 people in the course of three years. Another killed an average of about 80 persons per annum. A third caused thirteen villages to be aban doned, and 250 square miles of land to be thrown out of cultivation. A fourth, so late as 1SG9, killed 127 people, and stopped a public road for many weeks, until the opportune arrival of an English sportsman, who at last killed him. Such cases are, of course, exceptional, and generally refer to a period long past, but they explain and justify the superstitious awe with which the tiger is regarded by the natives. The favourite mode of shooting the tiger is from the back of elephants, or from elevated platforms (machdns) of boughs in the jungle. In Central India they are shot on foot. In Assam they are sometimes speared from boats, and in the Himalayas they are said to be ensnared by bird-lime. Rewards are given by Govern ment to native shikaris for the heads of tigers, varying in time and place according to the need. In 1877, 819 persons and 10,137 cattle were reported to have been killed by tigers ; on the other side of the account, 1579 tigers were reported slain, and 3777 was paid in rewards. ,1. The leopard or panther (F. pardus) is far more common than the tiger in all parts of India, and at least equally destructive to life and property. The greatest length of the leopard is about 7 feet 6 inches. A black variety, as beautiful as it is rare, is sometimes found in the extreme south of the peninsula, and also in Java. The cheetah or hunting leopard (Gneparda jtibata) must be carefully dis tinguished from the leopard proper. This animal appears to be a native only of the Deccan, where it is trained for hunting the antelope. In some respects it approaches the dog more nearly than the cat tribe. Its limbs are long, its hair rough, and its claws blunt and only partially retractile. The speed with which it bounds upon its prey, when loosed from the cart, exceeds the swiftness of any other mammal If it misses its first attack, it scarcely ever attempts to follow, but returns to its master. Among other species of the family Feliihe found in India may be mentioned the ounce or snow leopard (F. uncia), the clouded tiger (F. macroscelis), the marbled tiger cat (F. marmorata), the jungle cat (F. chaus) and the common viverrine cat (F. viverrina). Wolves (Canis lupus) abound throughout the open Wolf country, but are rare in the wooded districts. Their tribe, favourite prey is sheep, but they are also said to run down antelopes and hares, or rather catch them by lying in ambush. Instances of their attacking man are not uncom mon. In 1827 upwards of thirty children were carried off by wolves in a single paryana ; and the story of Romulus and Remus has had its counterpart in India within recent times. The Indian wolf has a dingy red dish-white fur, some of the hairs being tipped with black. By some naturalists it is regarded as a distinct species, under the name of Canis pallipes. Three distinct varieties, the white, the red, and the black wolf, are found in the Tibetan Himalayas. The Indian fox (Vulpes lengalensis) is comparatively rare, but the jackal (C. aureus) abounds everywhere, making night hideous by its never-to-be- forgotten yells. The jackal, and not the fox, is usually the animal hunted by the packs of hounds occasionally kept by Europeans. The wild dog or dhole (C. dhola) is Dog. found in all the wilder jungles of India, including Assam and British Burmah. Its characteristic is that it hunts in packs, sometimes containing thirty dogs, and does not give tongue. When once a pack of wild dogs has put up any animal, whether deer or tiger, that animal s doom is sealed. They do not leave it for days, and finally bring it to bay, or run it down exhausted. These wild dogs have sometimes been half domesticated, and trained to hunt for the use of man. A peculiar variety of wild dog exists in the Karen hills of Burmah, thus described from a specimen in confinement. It was black and white, as hairy as a skye- terrier, and as large as a medium-sized spaniel. It had an invariable habit of digging a hole in the ground, into which it crawled backwards, remaining there all day with only its nose and ferrety eyes visible. Among other dogs of India are the pariah, which is merely a mongrel, run wild and half starved ; the poligar dog, an immense creature peculiar to the south ; the grey-hound, used for coursing ; and the mastiff of Tibet and Bhutan. The striped hyaena (llycena striata) is common, being found wherever the wolf is absent. Like the wolf, it is very destructive both to the flocks and to children. Of bears, the common black or sloth bear (Ursus hibiatus) Bear. is common throughout India wherever rocky hills and forests occur. It is distinguished by a white horse-shoe mark on its breast. Its food consists of ants, honey, and fruit. When disturbed it will attack man, and it is a dangerous antagonist, for it always strikes at the face. The Himalayan or Tibetan sun bear (U. tiletanm) is found along the north, from the Punjab to Assam. During the summer it remains high up in the mountains, near the limit of snow, but in the winter it descends to 5000 feet and even lower. Its congener, the Malayan sun bear (Helarctos malayanus], is found in British Burmah, where also there is a smaller species (//. euryspilus), and a very large animal reported to be as big as the American grizzly. The elephant (JZlephas indicus) is found in many parts Ele- of India, though not in the north-west. Contrary to what pliant might be anticipated from its size and from the habits of its African cousin, the Indian elephant is now, at any rate, an inhabitant, not of the plains, but of the hills ; and even on the hills it is usually found among the higher-ridges and plateaus, and not in the valleys. From the peninsula of