Page:The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma (Mammalia).djvu/100

64 can turn round." It is probable that with smaller animals the tiger does not always take the trouble to break the neck, and in the case of large beasts such as buffaloes and gaur, which he is unable to overthrow, he occasionally hamstrings them, I think by a blow with his claws, but am not sure. I have twice known instances in which buffaloes were left hamstrung by tigers. Tigers sometimes undoubtedly kill or disable by the fearful blows they can give with their paws, but the above is, I believe, their usual plan of killing oxen.

Sterndale confirms Sanderson's account, and also points out that a tiger very rarely springs upon his prey; he probably takes advantage of the momemtarymomentary [sic] paralysis produced by his appearance to make a short rush and to seize the animal he intends to devour. He generally stalks as near as he can, but he has been seen to gallop after animals for some distance before seizing one of them.

I quite agree with Sanderson, who regards "the venerable belief in tigers sucking the blood of their victims" as one of the numerous myths that have collected around beasts of prey in the course of ages.

If an animal is struck down in the daytime, the body may be dragged some distance, but is usually left untouched till evening. At or soon after nightfall, or occasionally in quiet places before sundown, the tiger returns to the kill (known as ghara or mara), and, if the spot is open or otherwise unsuited for his repast, drags the body to a more convenient place. The enormous muscular power of the tiger is shown by the way in which he can transport large carcases of oxen or buffaloes over rough ground, up and down steep banks and through thick bushes. He sometimes lifts the body completely off the ground; Sanderson mentions an instance in which a bullock, weighing about 400 lbs., was thus carried for 300 yards. He almost always commences by eating the intestines and hindquarters. As a rule he remains near the kill, sometimes rushing out upon any intruder and driving away jackals, vultures, and other carrion-feeders; but more often he hides the carcase under bushes or leaves, and retires to a neighbouring thicket beside water. If very hungry, a tiger will devour both hindquarters the first night. If undisturbed, he generally remains about three days near the carcase, feeding at intervals. In one case, so far as I could learn, a large ox was completely devoured in 48 hours, only a few fragmeuts of bones and the contents of the stomach being left. Forsyth says that a tiger which lives entirely on cattle kills an ox about once in five days, and passes about two days after finishing his last victim without looking about for food, though he will strike down another quarry if it comes near him. Young tigers are more destructive than older animals, and when one gets amongst a herd of cattle, he frequently kills several, apparently in pure wantonness. A tigress with cubs, too, is frequently very destructive, partly, it is said, in order to teach the young tigers to kill their own prey. An animal that has been fired at, especially if he has been wounded, when returning to the kill, will frequently never again return to the body of his prey, but kill afresh when hungry.