TIGER.
Nimr, . . ARAB. Matcham,—. . . JAN% Ch'ung, . . . . CHIN. Pilli, TAAL.
Bag, Hixo.
Tigers occur throughout India, in the Malay Peninsula, Chinese Tartary, and Eastern Russia, but are unknown in China. The tiger uses its re-paw in self-defence and in fighting, but uses ' teeth in catching its prey, grasping tho neck. 'ter killing, it frequently lets its prey remain I nightfall, when it returns to feed upon it. The tiger ranges on the mountains of India to 6000 and 7000 feet. In hot weather, it rboura near rivers, in thickets of long grass, ushwood, or amongst the tamarisk bushes of 'er islets. The tigers of Lower Bengal and altral India are particularly savage and ferocious. le average size of a full-grown male tiger is un 9 to 9f feet, but occasionally in India a ;er is killed measuring 10 feet in length. On this int Lieut. Rice says (p. 50), "l'his was the iest tiger we had yet killed ; lie measured 11 A, 11 inches, counting from the end of his nose, tween the ears, to the tip of his tail. The rgest tiger of all measured 12 feet 7f inches lig, and was stout in proportion, a perfect mister (p. 207) ; another measured 12 feet 2 clies, and was stout in proportion (p. GO) ; the rgest tigress, llf feet, [I] From the extraordi Lry amount of trouble she gave us before being Iled, as well as from her great size, we all ought it must be a male tiger ' (p. 213) • another ;Tess is mentioned as 11 feet 1 or '2 inches 216). Undoubtedly very extraordinary di elisions for tigresses to attain ! The footprints a very large tiger are noticed as 6 inches long r 5 wide. One tiger measured a few inches rer 11 feet, and was exceedingly stout, with an :traordinary quantity of long hair about the ce, and even had long curly locks down the ick of his neck, much more so than in any we ive before or since ldlled ; this greatly added his personal appearance.' In 1881 (16th to 26th 3farch), the Durbliungali looting party shot for ten days, in Nepal and North Bliagulpur, 12 tigers, 57 deer, 83 pigs, hares, 7 floricans, besides smaller game, such duck, partridge, snipe, and quail. The Itu•gest ger measured 10 feet 5f inches in length,—he as truly a monster animal. The largest tigress easured 9 feet 4 inches,—a very handsome and autifully-marked animal.
Tigers catch the wild hog, the sambur and the )otted deer, and they often prey on cattle and ize villagers. They always retreat from oppo tion unless wounded or provoked. A herd of Laic will attack a tiger, and compel it to re aguish its prey. On one occasion, a herd of affaloes lushed on a tiger that had seized their L.rd-boy, and compelled it to drop him. The ild boar sometimes kills a tiger. Tigers eat ogs, aniinals that die of disease, and also their am kind. They are partial to particular local ies, and to old ruins, old teinples, and three or iur may be seen lying together on the tops of le walls. An old tiger will kill a cow about nee a week, retnaining near the carcase for two r three days, and sometimes longer, gnawing le bones before returning to its retreat.
Lieut. Rico mentions that, on skinning a dead ger, we discovered a number of porcupine uills in his feet. arms, and even face. These roken pieces of quill we had also met with on ther occasions when skinning tigers, which roves that they must be fond of such food. he porcupine only feeds at night, when, doubt .ss, the tiger often meets him, and with a tap of is paw destroys hit», in spite of hisarmourof quills.' Tigers that have killed a man genemlly con tinue to take that food. In the Mandla diatrict cast from Jubbulpur, in 1856 and previous yearn, on an average between two or three hundred villagers were killed annually, and Jerdon found several villages of the Bastar country deserted owing to the ravages of tigers. Colonel Fraser thinks that Bastar is the great tiger nureery. The tiger is often hunted down by the wild dogs of India.
The Mills declare that an old male tiger would certainly kill a young male if he caught him unawares at any time. Capt. M.— was onca long kept awake at night at the town of Nundwaas, by the terrible roaring of two large tigers, fighting over the body of a bullock one of them had just killed, close to the walls of the small town. Next morning a tiger was found dead by the bullock's side, and on following up some tracks a short distance, the inhabitants found another tiger also dead. Both were large males, covered with marks from each other's claws and teeth.