News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1889-09-12
A SCOURGE OF INDIA.
THE LARGEST, STRONGEST AND
MOST FERoCIoUS OF BEASTS.
Tigers and Their Mode of Attack
Their Preference for Human Flesh
Many People Killed by Them
Annually


Many People Killed by Them
Annually.
In his article in the Nineteenth Cen
fury, on the number of human lives de-
royed by animals, Mr.. J. Fayrer says:
The animal first in size, strength and
ferocity is the tiger It is confined en-
tirely to Asia, and is most common in
India Its muscular development is
enormous. The tiger cannot only strike
down IL COW with n blow of its forearm
and hold it with its fangs, but can raise
it from the ground and drag or carry it
to his lair, where it is devoured at
leisure.
The tiger attains its greatest size in
the jungles of India. Blyth says truly
that the largest tiger exceeds in size the
largest lion. The statements as to
length are conflicting and sometimes
exaggerated, errors arising from meas
urements of the skin being taken after it
has been removed from the body and
undergone stretching. The animal
should be measured from the nose along
the spine as he lies dead where he fell.
One that is ten feet by this measurement
is large, and the full grown males sell
dom exceed this, though it is certain
that they do occa ionally attain to
greater length. 1 have been present at
the death of tigers ten feet eight
inches and ten feet six inches, accu-
ra.ely measured where they fell, and
there are examples On record where the
length exceeded twelve feet; so that,
while fully agreeing with Jerdon and
others that the average size OF the male
tiger is from nine feet to nine and one
half feet or ten, am able to assert,
from indisputable evidence, that they
do sometimes attain the length of eleven
or twelve feet, OF even two or three
inches more. The tieress seldom ex-
ceeds nine feet, the average being be-
tween eight feet and eight and one-half
feet, or occasionally nine feet, and per-
haps in exceptional cases even up to
ten feet
Tie tigress is smaller the head,
neck, and body are finer and lighter !;
she is more active, and, especially when
accompanied by her young, more ag-
gressive than the tiger. The geograph-
ical distribution is confined to Asia,
from Ararat and Caucasus on tho west,
it extends 10 Saghalien on the east; and
from Cape Comorin to the Himalayas !;
rs high rs 5000 feet or 5000 feet. In
some places it is becoming rare, though
the number are still sufficient to cause
serious loss of life. 1t is also found
among the hills and rocky country of
Central and Southern India, and local.
ties remote from population and cultlva-
ton are most frequcnted but when
pressed by hunger the tiger visits clear
ed and cultivated places, and becomes
the villigers' dread, who are in constant
fear for their own or their cattle'S lives.
During the cold and wet seasons he is
restless, wandering from place to place
with no fixed abode, though keeping
within Il certain range of country. In
tho months of March, April and May he
is more res ric ed in his movements, the
grass jungle having been burned to a
great extent and the water dried up,
leaving only swamps and pools. The
shelter becomes less extensive, and with
the increasing heat, he becomes less in
clined for eXertion; he now seeks the
patches of grass or other shelter on the
edges of the forest and in the swamps,
where, lying at rest during the heat of
the day, lie steals out at night in search
of prey, and it is during these months
that he is often hunted aud destroyed,
either from elephants, machans, or on
foot.
It has been said that when d tiger has
tasted human flesh he prefers it to other
food. | cannot say how this may be,
but there is no doubt that when he has
overcome the national dread of the hui
man form he readily kills men, and be-
comes the terror of whole district. At
Nyneetal tiger prowled within circle
of twenty miles, and for three years
killed, on an average, eighty men per
annum. 1t sometimes happens that
road is closed for weeks by a single tiger;
not only pedestrians, but even those
travelling in bullock carts, are attacked
and carried off; and yet it is remarkable
with what apathy the danger is some
times regarded, for natives will carry on
their usual vOcations rs herdsmen
or woodcutters close to the cover in
which tho tiger is concealed. On the
other hand, they will often not pass
along certain road or path without
toms toms or torches to scare the tiger
away, while in other cases the heaters
will readily go on foot and beat him out,
though should he break back he is pretty
certain to strike some one down, nflict-
ing n dangerous, often q mortal wound,
but is less likely to do this if unwounded.
l have repeatedly seen hcrdsmen who
were willing to accompany you on foot
to the Jungle in which the tiger was ly-
ing, but who could not be persuaded to
mount an elephant for that purpose.
1t is n popular belief, not confined to
the ignorant, that the wounds inflicted
by tiger are of q poisonous character.
II is possible that the teeth and claws
may be contaminated by septic matter,
but this is the exception rather than the
rule. The real fact is that the wounds
are dangerous because they are deep
puncturcd and lacerated; otherwise they
bavo no popularity, and often heal
rapidly, though they sometimes suppl
rate and induce blood-poisoning. have
seen severe in ur,es recovered from
rapidly, while others have caused such
suppuration and destruction of tissue as
ultimately to prove fatal.
The tiger does not roar like the lion,
though he can do so occasionally. There
is a peculiar grunting, bark, or growl
when he is disturbed or frightened, and
this is repeated loudly when he charges.
When calling to each other at night,
tigers make n prolonged wailing howl,
which is very imposing and makes the
nearer glad to feel the protection of
camp about him. Awounded tiger, with
his ears laid back, his eyes glaring, his
fangs displayed, and his lair erect as he
charges with repeated angry growls, is
a most trying ordeal and very difficult
to meet unmovcd.
The tiger generally seizes his prey at
night he watches the cattle or what
ever it may be until he creeps within
reach, and then with rush or bound
he grips it by tre throat, drags OF strikes
it to the ground, twisting it so as some
times to disloca 9 or break the neck; the
fangs are driven in so as to hold the
struggling creature until dead, when it
is dragged off to the jungle to be eaten
at leisure. His lair is near, and from
this he proceeds, as appetite prompts
him, to the "kill, until it is eaten and
even the bones gnawed, by which time,
owing to the heat of the weather, it is
far adj anced in decomposition. The
place is revealed by the yultures, kites,
crows, and adiulants soaring over it or
settling on the branches around about
it, and by prowling iackals. The vul-
lures sit with q gorged or sleepy aspect
on The trees or on the ground near the
"kill" They endeavOr to make q meal
when the tiger has left it for time, and
even try to snatch a morsel while he is
feeding, termerity for which they often
pay with their lives. The tiger is FIRE
ouently found and slain near the ''kill."
r. no ,1I,,.iDrr tho oiobt 1-oo,,-