Birds and Nature, Vol 10 No. 2 [September 1901]Various
History
Birds and Nature, Vol 10 No. 2 [September 1901]
Various
Birds -- Periodicals; Natural history -- Periodicals
The Bengal Tiger (_Felis tigris_) inhabits the hotter regions of
Southern Asia, but the species is found with certain color variations
throughout the lower levels of all Asia from Siberia to the River
Euphrates and as far south as Sumatra and Java. Next to the lion it is
the strongest and most ferocious of carnivorous animals, and, on account
of the heavily wooded country in which it lives being densely populated,
the Tiger is even more destructive of human life. In Bengal alone three
hundred and forty-seven persons were reported killed by Tigers in a
single year, and this in spite of the best efforts of the government and
people to mitigate the evil by poisoning, hunting and trapping.
Mr. William T. Hornaday, who hunted Tigers on his collecting trip in
India, says in his book, “Two Years in the Jungle,” that only a limited
number of Tigers, and those of the old and decrepit sort, ever kill men
at all, but once they have tasted human flesh they continue to kill
until some hunter reciprocates and brings peace again to the ravaged
district. According to their habits in procuring food the people of
India divide Tigers into three classes—the “game killer,” the “cattle
lifter” and the “man killer.” The “game killer” lives in the dense
forest, catches his own deer and wild hogs and is very self-respecting
and honest, for a Tiger. The “cattle lifter” is a fat and lazy cat, who
hangs around villages and kills a steer from the herds whenever he is
hungry. Dragging away the carcass he returns to it until it is all
eaten, when he kills again, while the timid and defenseless natives flee
in terror or hover about, unable to protect their herds. It is after
these fat “cattle lifters” get old and mangy that they turn “man eater,”
finding it easier to catch the herdsman than to drag off a bullock. Then
after the first taste they haunt the paths and villages, pouncing upon
men, women and children until there is no safety, except within doors,
until some hunter has slain the foe.
Among the English of India Tiger hunting is a favorite sport. A most
picturesque and safe way is to mount on an Elephant and be driven about
through the country beating up the Tigers from cover and shooting them
with the huge four-bore rifles which the English sportsmen affect. The
principal danger lies in the stampeding of the elephant or the attack of
a wounded Tiger on the elephant himself. The more common way is to build
a shooting platform by some water hole or carcass and lie in wait for
the Tiger, or, better yet, have a small army of beaters drive him from
his lair and past the spot where the platform has been erected.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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