tiger.--Wariness and
cunning of the tiger.--Hunting incidents shewing their powers of
concealment.--Tigers taking to water.--Examples.--Swimming powers.
--Caught by floods.--Story of the Soonderbund tigers.

The tiger's mode of attack is very characteristic of his whole nature.
To see him stealthily crouching, or crawling silently and sneakingly
after a herd of cattle, dodging behind every clump of bushes or tuft
of grass, running swiftly along the high bank of a watercourse, and
sneaking under the shadowing border of a belt of jungle, is to
understand his cunning and craftiness. His attitude, when he is
crouching for the final bound, is the embodiment of suppleness and
strength. All his actions are graceful, and half display and half
conceal beneath their symmetry and elegance the tremendous power and
deadly ferocity that lurks beneath. For a short distance he is
possessed of great speed, and with a few short agile bounds he
generally manages to overtake his prey. If baffled in his first
attack, he retires growling to lie in wait for a less fortunate
victim. His onset being so fierce and sudden, the animal he selects
for his prey is generally taken at a great disadvantage, and is seldom
in a position to make any strenuous or availing resistance.

Delivering the numbing blow with his mighty fore paw, he fastens on
the throat of the animal he has felled, and invariably tries to tear
open the jugular vein. This is his practice in nearly every case, and
it shews a wonderful instinct for selecting the most deadly spot in
the whole body of his luckless prey. When he has got hold of his
victim by the throat, he lies down, holding on to the bleeding
carcase, snarling and growling, and fastening and withdrawing his
claws, much as a cat does with a rat or mouse. Some writers say he
then proceeds to drink the blood, but this is just one of those broad
general assertions which require proof. In some cases he may quench
his thirst and gratify his appetite for blood by drinking it from the
gushing veins of his quivering victim, but in many cases I know from
observation, that the blood is not drunk. If the tiger is very hungry
he then begins his feast, tearing huge fragments of flesh from the
dead body, and not unusually swallowing them whole. If he is not
particularly hungry, he drags the carcase away, and hides it in some
well-known spot. This is to preserve it from the hungry talons and
teeth of vultures and jackals. He commonl