St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1886-02-27
HUNTING THE TIGER.
Jack Ayers Stories About the
King of Grace and Strength.

A short, thick-set man with a dark
mustache, in which the gray hairs were
beginning to appear pretty thickly. sat
in the rotunda of the Palmer House the
other evening. To look at him one
would not think that there was any,
thing very remarkable in his appear
ance, but he was, all the same, one of
the best known shikarris of the far
East, famous throughout India and
Burmah as the most deadly tiger shot
since the days of Gordon Cumming.
Wherever the camp fire is lit and the
days sport is being talked over some
anecdote of Jack" Alger is sure to be
introduced. He was on his way to the
old country via San Francisco and
Chicago, and the last time the writer
met him was in the hall of the Great
Eastern Hotel, at Calcutta, when he
was preparing to start on one of his
hunting expeditions to the Terai.
''Tell you something about tigers
that will interest Chicago people?
Why, certainly, my boy,' and "Jack'
settled himself in his chair preparatory
to yarn my first acquaintance
with the tiger in his natural state"
said Mr.. Alger, "was made in the
jungles of the Terai. They are hard
beasts to tackle, especially the man
eaters, and those who have engaged in
tiger shooting, either on foot or on ele-
plants, know full well how many shots
the brute sometimes takes. Where
population is exceedingly scarce the
tiger loses much of his skulking, hiding
disposition, and attacks his prey in the
open. I knew once of a lad herding
cattle who was pursued over meadow
and through the herd, and was killed
by the tiger, who had begun to eat him,
when scared away by the villagers. I
saw the body; it lay in the midst of an
open field, at least two hundred yards
from any cover. It was disemboweled,
with the chest torn wide open, but the
face was as that of one who lies in
pleasant sleep.
"The enormous forearm of the tiger
has attracted attention. You have
seen cat pat dead mouse or the face
of dog that was teasing her, and it is
easy to understand what tremendous
blow a tiger could give in the same
manner, but believe it is mistake to
suppose that he strikes down his prey
with his paw. He strikes in self-de-
tense and when fighting, but not when
selling his victim. have seen many
carcasses of deer, cattle, buffaloes and
horses which had been killed by tigers,
and they all had the same appearance
-four deep holes at the back of the
neck made by the animals incisor
teeth; no other mark, and if the tiger
had begun to feed on the body it was
extensively lacerated. And If the prey
had struggled much and had succeeded
i'm dragging the tiger few yards the
chest and forelegs would bear the i'm
preston of the claws and the tremen-
dous grip, but these, as far as my ex-
perience goes, were exceptional cases.
.sWe are told in natural history books
that the tiger disdains to touch carrion.
This is not so. The same thing is said
in regard to the eagle, and is equally
erroneous. The lion also is, believe,
as 1lttl6 ScEupuIous do any oo1OA Seto IL
this particular. [ have told you how
the tiger captures and kills his prey.
When dead, if the body be convenient
to his covert, he lets it remain; IT it be
too far out in the open it is dragged
further in toward the jungle and there
lies until dawn. Sometimes the body
is disemboweled after being removed
little way, and is then drawn away to
some hidden spot. A tiger has been
seen to disembowel goat, holding it
by the throat, lying on its back under
meath the body and ripping it open by
repeated kicks with the hind claws.
BE appears to prefer rump steak M;,o Or
are almost always the first part eaten,
then the ribs, rarely the forequarters
and never, within my knowledge, the
head.
Here is good story" continued
Jack, settling himself anew, that az
fords a pretty good specimen OF the