Page:The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma (Mammalia).djvu/99

Rh victims; I have more than once seen unmistakable remains of a bear that had been devoured; and Sanderson relates an instance of a tiger that was said to have taken habitually to the slaughter of bears for food. Young gaur are occasionally killed, but the full-grown animal is more than a match for most tigers. Instances are said to have been known of even young elephants being attacked, one such is mentioned by McMaster. In fact a hungry tiger will probably kill any other animal he can for food. He is said to have been observed catching and eating frogs; and Mr. Simson found tigers in Eastern Bengal, during inundations, feeding upon fish, tortoises, crocodiles, and large lizards, and he once killed a tiger the pouch of which was crammed with grasshoppers or locusts. It is not to be supposed that the tiger's prey is killed without a struggle, and the more powerful animals sometimes beat off their assailants, whilst instances have been recorded in which large boars have killed tigers that attacked them, the two having in some cases been found dead together.

Great numbers of domestic animals are killed by tigers annually, and many of the latter appear to live entirely upon cattle. Oxen are the ordinary prey of the catlle-eating tiger, who is often an older animal than the game-killer, having become by long experience more cunning and less afraid of man. Tigresses with cubs also often quarter themselves upon a village and subsist in luxury on the flocks and herds of the villagers. Sheep and goats are not so often attacked, tigers having a distinct preference for beef, but ponies, and even horses and camels, are occasionally killed. Buffaloes in a herd are fully able to defend themselves, and generally attack a tiger, many incidents being recorded in which they have rescued their herdsman; but tigers often kill young buffaloes if they are found away from the herd.

There has been much discussion as to the manner in which the tiger kills its prey. The popular notion was, and probably still is, that the tiger springs upon its victim from a distance, and either kills the animal by one blow of its paw, or tears the throat with its teeth and sucks the blood. All this is certainly incorrect, so far, at all events, as cattle are concerned; small animals may perhaps be killed by a blow of the paw. I have seen many oxen that had been killed by tigers, and in numerous cases (always, I think, when I ascertained the point) the neck had been broken, whilst in several instances, despite the marks of fangs upon the throat, the great blood-vessels of the neck were untouched, and claw-marks were confined to scratches on the forequarters. All these details agree with the description given by Sanderson from the accounts received from herdsmen. According to these, the tiger does not spring upon his prey: "clutching the bullock's forequarters with his paws, one being generally over the shoulder, he seizes the throat in his jaws from underneath and turns it upwards and over, sometimes springing to the far side in doing so, to throw the bullock over and give the wrench which dislocates its neck. This is frequently done so quickly that the tiger, if timid, is in retreat again before the herdsman