On one occasion, when following up a tiger's tmcks, Lieut. Rice and his companions came upon a dead cheeta (or hunting leopard) that had just been killed by the tiger ; he having, no doubt, surprised the eheeta asleep, for the marks of the tiger's claws, from which blood still was flowing, were quite plain on the body. On another occasion they found a hytena that had been murdered by a tiger. The paw alone had been used to kill these victims, for there were no teeth-marks.
The tiger's presence is well known by the familiar yell of the kole balloo, or superannuated jackal ; but it is at night mostly that his hideous voice is heard. The kole balloo is an aged, mangy, worn-out jackal, that has either left or been expelled his pack. Being perhaps prevented by his infirmities from any longer being able to get his own living by hunting. in company with his fellows, he devotes himself to the service of some tiger. It is his busins to discover and give warning of the whereabouts of any stray cattle or other animal he may find that will afford his royal master a meal, the remains of which, after the tiger has dined, he of eour:.e hopes will fall to his share.
Captain M— says—• On one occasion we distinctly saw a large tiger by the clear moonlight several times pass and repas.s, within a.score of pacers from where we were sleeping out; in spite even, too, of the large fires kept burning around us, greatly to the terror of our servants, horses, and dogs. The old jackal howled frightfully all the while dose at hand, and no doubt wondered when his meat would be got ready. We did not like to fire at this tiger, for fear, being but slightly wounded, he might charge among 'is ; yet several times in the night lie caused us to turn out and show a front. At last, towards dawn, he and the jackal t,00k themselves' off, to our great delight.' Jules Gerard, the famous French lion-slayer of North Africa, refers famil iarly to the screech of the jackal, who generally follows the lion to eat the retnnants of his meals.
A ti,gress has from two to four cubs at a birth, which remain with her till they are able to kill for themselves. A wTiter on this subject says— ' I have shot seventeen tigresses enceinte, and have invariably found four cubs inside the mother, I think my experience includes six or seven instanCes of this. But I have never seen more
than 'three alive,' and that number only at the stage of extreme babyhood, before they were old enongh to begin hunting with their mother. In every instance that I have met with or heard of a tigress going about with half-grown cubs, the number of cubs has never exceeded two. From this you will see that my experience (small as it is) points to four as the normal number, of whom one or two are still-born, and to the number of cubs that survive extreme childhood being limited to two. The natives say that the father always eats one of his progeny.' The clavicle of the tiger lies loosely imbedded among tbe muscles near the shoulder-joint, and is considered of great virtue by the natives of India. The whiskers are supposed to constitute a deadly poison, and axe carefully burned off the instant the animal is killed ; but in some parts of the south of India they are supposed to endow their possessor with unlimited power over the opposite sex • the claws are mounted in silver, and set as bracelets. The bones of the tiger, of the Leopardus brachyurus, and of the lynx, are sold in China, to form an ingredient in certain invigorating jellies, made of hartshorn and the plastron of the terrapin. Burmese and Malays eat the flesh of the tiger, for which they pay from 9d. to ls. a lb., because they believe that by eating it they acquire the courage and sagacity of the tiger. The aborigines of Central India reverence, in a mild, inoffensive way, the sun, the moon, the tiger, and the bhoot or household spirits. They use tigers' claws as charms, and the most solemn oath of a Santal is on a tiger's skin. ' In 1881 there were 647 persons killed by tigers in India, and how to destroy the tigers has been a subject of anxious thought in India. It is very difficult sometimes to make out a tiger when concealed in grass or bushes, for they will often lie very close, their skin being of the same colour as the dry grass and reeds around, while the stripes, even if seen, are easily mistaken for shadows cast by the strong glare of the sun.