It was the opinion of the late Mr. Joe Shillingford that in Bengal and the Nepal Terai, at all events, tigers, as distinguished from tigresses, did not attain full maturity until they attained a length of over 10 ft., measured ‘sportsman’s style,’ and that occasionally they attain a length of 11 ft., and that the 12 ft. tiger shot by the late Mr. C. A. Shillingford was an exceptional monster, like the exceptional tigress, 10 ft. 2 ins. in length, shot in 1867, and in these opinions I entirely concur. I have a collection of over a hundred tiger skulls, and in no case are the parietal sutures obliterated from old age of skulls of tigers below 10½ ft. in length.
It was the opinion of the late Mr. Joe Shillingford that in Bengal and the Nepal Terai, at all events, tigers, as distinguished from tigresses, did not attain full maturity until they attained a length of over 10 ft., measured ‘sportsman’s style,’ and that occasionally they attain a length of 11 ft., and that the 12 ft. tiger shot by the late Mr. C. A. Shillingford was an exceptional monster, like the exceptional tigress, 10 ft. 2 ins. in length, shot in 1867, and in these opinions I entirely concur. I have a collection of over a hundred tiger skulls, and in no case are the parietal sutures obliterated from old age of skulls of tigers below 10½ ft. in length.
Tigers take to water readily, and swim higher out of the water than most animals.
Elephants who take matters into their own hands andcharge at tigers are exceedingly dangerous in the field, particularly after a tiger has been killed and men are dismounting to pad it. All the elephants in such a case, except the one destined to carry the beast, should be taken away from near the carcase; they are more or less in an excited state, and are apt to mistake a man in the grass for another tiger. The writer remembers being on an elephant that stood perfectly steady for the shot, but as soon as the tiger was killed—it was within a few feet of her—it was all the mahout could do to prevent her charging it.
The elephant has a way of playing football with an animal which though diverting to a spectator is awkward for the man in the howdah. The elephant performs a kind of war dance over the carcase, kicking it about between his feet, lifting it with the front of the hindfoot and returning it from the back of the forefoot till tired, when he places one ponderous hindfoot upon it and squashes it flat. If an elephant has been mauled, it is not at all a bad plan to let it play with the carcase of its enemy; but everything should be taken out of the howdah, and the skin will not be worth much afterwards.
Two other serious dangers that have to be guarded against in tiger shooting are bees and red ants. Bees generally hang their hives from boughs of trees or on the face of rocks, but often they have them in high grass, and an elephant pushing his way through disturbs them, rendering them exceedingly aggressive, whilst a shot fired near them is quite enough to make them attack. Deaths of men and animals from their stings have often been recorded; they almost always go at the head, and the best way of escaping is to cover the head with a blanket, which should invariably be placed in each howdah. The mahouts always sit on theirs. Oddly enough, if the head is covered the rest of the body, even of unclad natives, usually escapes their attentions. A nest of red ants, though not so dangerous, is quite enough to put anyone to flight, as they bite unmercifully and leave their nippers in. No one would ever think of climbing a tree with a bee’s nest in it, but equal careshould be taken that red ants, which are hard to detect, are not in it also; an inspection of the trunk will usually decide the question, especially if the boughs touch nothing else. In selecting camping grounds particular attention to these points is also necessary; most servants do not take the trouble to look up into the trees, and will light their fires under a bee’s nest till they have been properly stung once; but their carelessness may result in the loss of ponies’ or even men’s lives.
Sanderson remarks on the danger of firing at a tiger’s head except at very close ranges. The writer saw an instance of this in a tigress hit on the side of the head with an Express bullet; she dropped in her tracks, lying with her head underneath her for nearly a minute, when she recovered, went back into the jungle, and gave a good deal of trouble afterwards, charging the elephants freely. A shot through the shoulder is far more likely to be effective. A tiger seems rather a soft beast, and nearly always drops on receiving his first wound, though he picks himself up pretty quickly. Subsequent wounds have comparatively little effect on any animal, and another curious thing that the writer has noticed is that wounded animals nearly always lie down on their wounded side.
Tigers do not seem to be very particular as to what they eat. Sterndale records an instance of their eating carrion; Sanderson gives a story of three tigers killing and eating a fourth, and of their eating bears; and Colonel Kinloch told the writer of his finding a snow bear killed by a tiger in Chumba, on barasingh ground. Tigers seem to be yearly penetrating deeper into the Himalayas; probably they follow the ever-increasing herds of cattle that come up from the plains in the summer to graze.
Sterndale gives an ingenious formula for finding the length of a tiger from its skull. For details the reader is referred to his book.
In the following list of measurements only tigers of 10 ft. or over are mentioned except where weights are given and of exceptionally large tigresses. The system of recording tigers’ weights as shot does not appear satisfactory. Those which scaled over 500 lbs. must surely have included a good deal of beef.
Measurements
Native names: generally, ‘Chita’; in the Himalayas, ‘Lagá Bagá’; in Central India, ‘Téndwá’
The panther is common all over India, Burmah, and Ceylon, but does not cross the snow-line of the Himalayas, being replaced beyond the range by the ounce. Sterndale gives two varieties, the pard and the panther, describing the pard as being larger, the spots more clearly defined in rosettes, and the skull longer and more pointed than the panther’s. Sanderson also gives two varieties with the same distinctions, but calls Sterndale’s pard the panther, and Sterndale’s panther the leopard.
This is in itself perplexing to the ordinary sportsman, and as the writer saw two beasts shot in the same beat, the male corresponding to Sterndale’s pard and the female to Sanderson’s leopard, the only solution he can offer of the difficulty is that the sportsman may call the beast he shoots either leopard or panther according to his own fancy, and not one man in a hundred will be able to contradict him.
The panther is a nuisance wherever he is; he is perpetually prowling about villages at night picking up unconsidered trifles, such as dogs, goats, ponies and babies, in short anything. Occasionally panthers become regular man-eaters, and though far more plentiful than tigers, they are so cunning that they are far harder to shoot. A wounded panther is always a dangerous beast to follow up. He can hide, like a quail, in anything; his attack is always sudden, and being a quick, active beast, he more frequently makes good his charge than a tiger. More men get mauled by panthers than by tigers, but on the other hand fatal results are the exception, and stories are told of men having strangled panthers with their hands when they have been attacked.
Many a pet dog has been carried off in broad daylight, in the middle of large hill stations, where the forest comes close up to the roads and houses. A dog of my own had the narrowest escape in Chamba, being chased by a panther almost up to my feet. The beast had almost got hold of him when I drove him off. Ward recommends trapping, and gives capital directions for making a cage-trap. When the writer was stationed at Chakrata a few panthers were caught in these traps, but more were shot over dogs tied up as baits. Panthers are often shot in this way, or by sitting over a kill. At night a very good plan is to strew chaff thickly all round the bait, and if it is dark arrange a lantern so as to throw its light on the bait; neither of these plans will scare a panther, though it might a tiger.[21]Sterndale recommends phosphorescent oil (one grain phosphorus to one drachm oil dissolved in a bath of warm water) for touching the sights at night. There is a magnesium wire lantern, a Hanoverian invention, which is made to fit on the sportsman’s shoulder, and on a string being pulled throws a broad search light down the barrels of the rifle lasting about thirty seconds; but this, if the sportsman was sitting on the ground, might lead to complications should the first shot fail to kill outright. If a panther’s cave is found, it is often worth while watching the entrance about 4p.m., when the animal will come out and sun himself before starting on his evening ramble. In Central India panthers are often beaten out like tigers, but they are unsatisfactory beasts to try and drive, as they are so apt to hide and let the beaters pass by them. On one occasion a panther came within shot of one of the guns, who did not fire as a tiger was expected. The panther first amused himself by catching a hare that the beaters had driven up to him, then, as the men got near, he selected a plump youth and proceeded to stalk him, when the gunner thought it time to interfere.
Sitting up over a bait at night is the poorest of all amusements. Often has the writer undergone it, and as often swornhe never would do it again, till the next absolute certainty has been offered him with the usual disappointing result.
When a panther is in the habit of attacking flocks on their way home in the evening, a good plan is to select a place before the flock returns, and arrange with the shepherd that he shall drive the flock past your hiding-place and tether a kid as he passes; the apparent absence of pre-arrangement will probably induce the panther to show at once.
Sanderson gives some stirring accounts of his adventures with panthers in which the following points are particularly noticeable, viz. the necessity of posting markers outside the cover beaten to watch the panther if he leaves it; that panthers will not charge out of caves even if poked up with bamboos; that, unlike most tigers, a panther charged home at a large party of men closed up, and used his paws, cuffing right and left instead of biting. Not that a panther never bites, as the beast referred to had bitten a man previously, but in nearly all cases of men being mauled the bulk of their injuries are claw wounds.
Sterndale relates a curious legend about a well-known man-eating panther that killed over two hundred people in three years, and was supposed to be a kind of Wehr-wolf. Panthers have often been ridden down and speared, but two or three men are required for this amusement, as on the first horse overtaking it the panther will at once crouch and endeavour to spring on the horse’s back as he passes. The second horseman should, therefore, be close up ready to cut in at once; care should be taken to get the first spear home in a good place, and the panther should be held down if possible, till despatched by the spears of the rest of the party. It is foolhardiness for a single man to attempt it. Panthers climb readily, and many have been shot out of trees where they have taken refuge, or been found lying asleep on a branch. Forsyth considers that many panthers escape in drives by taking to trees, and mentions finding the body of a child, that had been killed by a panther, lodged in a forked bough.
The troopers of the Central Indian Horse used often to killpanthers in the rainy season by tracking them into patches of sugar-cane, which they surrounded with men armed with spears and swords (guns were naturally not allowed), and then hunted the beast out with a pack of dogs. When panthers or bears were marked down in jungle too big to be surrounded, the guns were posted in trees, and the pack laid on to hunt the beasts up.
Terriers were chiefly used, but it was necessary to employ a greyhound or two to prevent the beast galloping away from the little dogs; the greyhounds would not tackle, but by ranging up and snapping would impede the beast’s movements. Sanderson had great sport with his pack, hunting bears, bison, and even on one occasion a young elephant. He gives every instruction for getting together a pack, but does not mention the use of greyhounds, though they would evidently have saved his heavy seizers from long tiring runs. Sambur hunting with dogs in Ceylon is an old-established custom, but there apparently the whole pack is hunted together, while Sanderson appears to have kept his seizers up till the quarry came to bay and then slipped them.
Black panthers are occasionally found, but they are merely instances of melanism, several cases of a single black cub in a litter being recorded. As a rule, these black specimens are only found in heavy forests, not in the more open ground, and they are more common in the south of India than the north. There is a lovely stuffed specimen in the British Museum, upon which the markings are just discernible in certain lights.
Native names: ‘Tungmar’ Lepcha; ‘Zik’ Bhotia; ‘Lamchitta’ of the Khas tribe (Sterndale)
This panther seems to be entirely a forest animal. It extends from Nepal eastwards through Assam.
Kinloch gives an instance of one having been shot, butspecimens are very rarely obtained, though occasionally live cubs have been bought from natives.
The chief peculiarities of this species are the extreme beauty of the colouring, and the fact that the upper canines are the longest in comparison of all living felines.
Native names: ‘Chita’ generally; ‘Yuz’ of the Chita-catchers (Sterndale)
This animal is generally found in Central or Southern India. The writer has never heard of it in the Punjab or North-West Provinces. According to Sterndale, it is most common in Jeypur in Upper India and Hyderabad in Southern India.
In general colour it is like a panther, except that its nose is black instead of pinkish; it has a mane on the neck and long hair on the belly; its spots are single and not in rosettes. Its shape is quite different from that of the panther. Instead of having the muscular forearm, short legs and rounded body of that beast, it is a tall greyhound-like animal with thin long legs, and toes like a dog, the claws being only semi-retractile.
It is not often shot, but most native princes have tame specimens for hunting antelopes. These have to be caught when nearly full grown, as cubs cannot be trained for the sport, and chita catching is a regular profession in certain districts. In Sterndale’s ‘Mammalia of India’ there is an interesting account of catching chitas quoted from ‘The Asian.’ As regards its habits when wild, the writer says: