The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-05-28
TRAITS OF THE INDIAN TIGER,
More Formidable Than Lion and Cour-
ageous and CowardIy at Turns.

ageous and Cowardly at Turns.
From the Chicago Inter Ocean.
speaking of the tiger. he is easily the
king of all the feline family" said Sid
ney Castron, who arrived last week
from Calcutta, and last night was tell
ing jungle stories to some friends. He
can whip lion, hands down, as has
been shown in every case reported
where the two have come together on
falr terms. The tiger is as strong and
heaVy as the lion, is swifter, more fe-
roclous and more dangerous. In a
hghting temper tiger will turn upon
the hunters beating the jungle on ele-
phants, leap upon the head or shoulder
of the nearest elephant and make
things very unpleasantly lively for the
man upon his back. A tiger has been
known to charge straight upon a full
battalion of soldiers and come near to
breaking its formation before he could
be disposed of.
Nine times out of ten, on the other
hand, the tiger when hunted will run
straight away, or sneak and double in
the thick jungle in the effort to escape.
In bit of cover he will lie as close to
the ground as a rabbit, and all the out
cry and throwing of stones by the line
of heaters will not start him unless he
is actually hit. In hunting the tiger on
foot 1T is usual to station the lookouts
in trees to watch for the first appear
ance of the beast. If one of them sees
the tiger trying to steal past him he
has only to break a dry stick sharply
in two and the cracking sound will turn
the tiger back. In short, when the
brute once gets scared and suspicious
he is one of the biggest towards alive,
who will stand wounds without coming
to fight though none the less he is
always dangerous when driven to bay
with no show of escape
THE tiger at all times is very liable
to panic when confronted suddenly by
anything which he does not under
stand. The opening of a parasol by
lady has been known to stampede a
charging tiger, and an experience some
what similar occurred with a mission
airy whom l knew, who told me the
story. He was crossing a patch of open
country on foot when he saw tiger
stealing toward him from the jungle
on one side. He had no show to run
or fight, and so he did the only thing
that occurred to him to do, and drop
ping on his knees prayed loudly. 1t
was a performance evidently new to the
tiger which reused his suspicious, for
he stopped, sheered away and at last
went back into the jungle. Both We're
taken equally, by surprise, and when
the man yelled out 'Scat!' the big cat
turned Tall ana Sneakeu away.
LAS is generally known, a man-e eating
tiger is usually an old beast which has
got past his time for catching game,
and so seeks an easier prey in human
beings. But tigers born of a man-eat-
ing tigresS are always man-eaters, for
they get their first lessons in hunting
from their mother. A tigress teaches
her Whelps to hunt as a cat does her
kittens, by bringing them live prey to
practice upon. Ten years ago, in one
of the hill districts of India, a tigress
was killed, whose taking off caused
much rejoicing among the natives, and
was told at length in many Of the In
dian and English newspapers. She was
known all over India as the Inan-eater
who once had given her whelps live
man to play with. She carried off the
man from an open hut in the forest
where some woodcutters were sleeping.
His companions took refuge in trees,
and from their place Of safety saw her
take the man alive to where the whelps
were waiting close by, and lay him
down before them. AS the man at
tempted to crawl away the whelps
would cling to his legs with teeth and
claws. the tigress looking on and pur-
got too far away from the tigress, she
would bound after him and bring him
back. When the Whelps had had
enough of their sport, the tigress sprang
upon the man, and, holding him down
with her forepaws, began her meal
from his living body"