Page:The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma (Mammalia).djvu/103

Rh tiger has been wounded, a herd of buffaloes are employed to drive him out of the cover, which they do very effectually, charging him in a body if he does not retreat.

In some parts of Southern India a plan is adopted of enclosing a small area of jungle, into which a tiger has been traced, by nets. The animal is then speared or shot when occasion offers. A full account of this method is given by Sanderson in the work already quoted. According to Jerdon, in the Wynaad tigers are driven into a net and speared by a particular class of natives.

It would be impossible to notice all the methods adopted for destroying tigers. In some parts of the country traps are used, but the cage-trap, though often successful in capturing panthers, is seldom so with tigers. Tigers are occasionally taken in pitfalls. A kind of figure-of-4 trap with a heavy platform loaded with stones, that falls upon the tiger and crushes him, is used in parts of Orissa and, I believe, elsewhere. In Burma a bow is set with a poisoned dart, and let off by a string across the path. Spring-guns have also been used. Poisoning the carcase of an animal killed by a tiger is also resorted to in some cases, strychnine being chiefly used for the purpose by Europeans, but it is not always effective.

The age to which tigers live is not clearly ascertained. Sanderson mentions an instance in which he killed a large cattle-eating tiger that had been known to haunt a particular group of villages for twenty years. This animal showed no signs of age except that his coat was becoming light-coloured.

Tigers captured young are easily tamed, and many of the adult animals in menageries are perfectly good-tempered, and fond of being noticed and caressed by those whom they know. They have repeatedly bred in confinement, though not so freely as lions, and the cubs more rarely survive.  


 * Felis pardus, L. Syst. Nat. i, p. 61 (1766); Blyth, Cat. p. 55; Jerdon, Mam. p. 97; Elliot, Mon. Fel. pls. vi, vii.
 * Felis leopardus, Schreb. Säugeth. iii, p. 387, pl. ci; Kelaart, Prod. p. 45.

Tendwa, Chita, Sona-chita, Chita-bágh, Adnára, H.; Palang, Pers.; Diho, Baluch.; Súh, Kashmiri; Tidua, Srighas, Bundelkand; Gorbacha or Borbacha, Deccan; Karda, Asnea, Singhal, Bibia-bágh, Mahr.; Tendutca, Bibla, Bauris of Deccan; Honiga, Kerkal, Canarese; Teon-Kula, Kol.; Jerkos, Paharia of Rájmehál; Burkál, Gordág, Gond.; Sonora, Korku; Chiru-thai, Tam.; Chinna-puli, Tel.; Puli, Mal.; Kutiya, Cingalese; Bai-hira, Tahir-hé, Goral-hé, or Ghor-hé, hill-tribes near Simla (according to Jerdon, generally known as Lakhar-bagha, a name elsewhere used for the hyæna); Sik, Tibetan; Syik or Syiak, or Sejjiak, Lepcha; Kajengla, Manipuri; Misi patrai, Kam-kei, Kuki; Hurrea kon, Morrh, Rusa, Tekhu Khuia, Kekhi, Naga; Kya-lak or Kya-thit, Burmese; Kla-preung, Talain; Kiché-phong, Karen; Rimau-bintang, Malay.

Pupil circular. Tail varying from rather more than half to about three quarters the length of the head and body. Caudal vertebræ usually 24 or 25, but varying, it is said, from 22 to 28.