Page:Littell's Living Age - Volume 129.djvu/46

38 the shoulder. An Indian sportsman informs us that ten feet may be taken as the usual length of a tiger, certainly not twelve feet, or twelve feet two inches, as Dr. Fayrer asserts.

In the "Mammals of India," Jerdon gives the average size of a full-grown male tiger at nine to nine and one-half feet; adding, "Occasionally tigers are killed ten feet in length, and perhaps a few inches over, but the stories of tigers eleven and twelve feet in length which are so often heard certainly require confirmation;" and again, "I have not myself seen an authentic account of a tiger that measured more than ten feet and two or three inches." Forsyth corroborates Jerdon, calling ten feet one inch, the size of an unusually large tiger.

The prey of the tiger is multifarious, but cattle, deer, and wild hogs form its staple. It steals at night to the neighbourhood of a village, or gowrie, where cattle feed, and springs upon some unforfunateunfortunate [sic] bullock, which it drags into a secluded place, and, having satisfied its appetite, withdraws from the murrie, or kill, to some beithuck, or lair, in the thick grass or jungle hard by, where it sleeps off its debauch. The same sportsman states that, except in the very hottest weather, when water is scarce, a tiger will not remain by its kill for more than twelve hours. Frequently, however, it will return and consume other parts of the victim, once more retiring to sleep till decomposition sets in, and the crowds of jackals, vultures, and birds of prey which are thereby attracted to the locality warn him to seek fresh game. In north and central India his practice is to drag the creature on which he has pounced to the nearest stream, lie down all night by it devouring it, sleep during the following day, and then quit the place when evening falls. He rarely travels less than fifteen miles, and often twice that distance, in a night. Indeed, our friend knew of one which was shot at, and had its fore-arm broken, one afternoon, and yet possessed such vitality that, even in that condition, he travelled thirteen miles and killed again the same evening. The attack consists of a stealthy advance till within short springing distance. Then, with a quick rush and a roar, he dashes his prey to the ground with his powerful arm, and seizes it at once by the throat with his formidable fangs, holding it down till nearly or quite dead, and then dragging it away. Milton has caught the growl or roar of the springing tiger in his expression "howling like tigers at the prey." ("Comus.")

In the monsoon, when food is scarce, the Bheels in Khandeish affirm that the tiger condescends to feed on frogs, which reminds us of the story told of the lion deigning to turn mouser in extreme old age.

One of the most curious and, at the same time, well-attested peculiarities of the tiger is that he does not naturally possess, but easily acquires, a love of human flesh. At first, tigers appear to bow to that instinctive dread of man which is natural to all animals. The natives are aware of this habit, and carry on their usual avocations, as grass-cutters, fruit-gatherers, herdsmen, etc., close to a thicket where a tiger is known to be lying. It is not merely fatalism, as might be supposed, that renders them thus apathetic, but the knowledge that as long as tigers can procure other food they will not injure man. Even when one of their cattle is struck down, they run up and often frighten the tiger from the body of his victim by shouting and beating sticks on the ground. These aheers, or herdsmen, too, armed with what Aristotle calls the courage derived from experience, will conduct the sportsman up to the kill with fearless confidence. Like the cobra, they hold the tiger in superstitious reverence. In many parts, says Dr. Fayrer, the natives will avoid mentioning his name, save by a variety of periphrases or euphemisms, and will not kill him even when they have a fair opportunity to do so, for fear that his spirit will haunt them, or do them mischief after death. But, when the tiger has once tasted human flesh, the spell of man's supremacy is broken, and ever after that, it is said, he prefers it to any other. Confirmed man-eaters are frequently, we believe, old tigers; with failing activity and decaying teeth, they find the easiest mode of procuring a meal is to knock down some defenceless villager or incautious postman. Haunting one road or district, after several murders of this kind have been perpetrated, the tiger actually scares away the natives, and depopulates the locality. In 1869, one tigress was reported to have killed one hundred and twenty-seven people, and stopped a public road for many weeks. In another case in the Central Provinces, a single tigress caused the desertion of thirteen villages, and two hundred and fifty square miles of country were thrown out of cultivation. Similarly, in