y remains on guard near his
_cache_ until he has acquired an appetite. If he cannot conveniently
carry away his quarry, because of its bulk, or the nature of the
ground, or from being disturbed, he returns to the place at night and
satisfies his appetite.

Tigers can sneak crouchingly along as fast as they can trot, and it is
wonderful how silently they can steal on their prey. They seem to have
some stray provident fits, and on occasions make provision for future
wants. There are instances on record of a tiger dragging a _kill_
after him for miles, over water, and through slush and weeds, and
feasting on the carcase days after he has killed it. It is a fact, now
established beyond a doubt, that he will eat carrion and putrid flesh,
but only from necessity and not from choice.

On one occasion my friends put up a tigress during the rains, when
there are few cattle in the _derahs_ or plains near the river. She had
killed a pig, and was eagerly devouring the carcase when she was
disturbed. Snarling and growling, she made off with a leg of pork in
her mouth, when a bullet ended her career. They seem to prefer pork
and venison to almost any other kind of food, and no doubt pig and
deer are their natural and usual prey. The influx, however, of vast
herds of cattle, and the consequent presence of man, drive away the
wild animals, and at all events make them more wary and more difficult
to kill. Finding domestic cattle unsuspicious, and not very formidable
foes, the tiger contents himself at a pinch with beef, and judging
from his ravages he comes to like it. Getting bolder by impunity, he
ventures in some straits to attack man. He finds him a very easy prey;
he finds the flesh too, perhaps, not unlike his favourite pig.
Henceforth he becomes a 'man-eater,' the most dreaded scourge and
pestilent plague of the district. He sometimes finds an old boar a
tough customer, and never ventures to attack a buffalo unless it be
grazing alone, and away from the rest of the herd. When buffaloes are
attacked, they make common cause against their crafty and powerful
foe, and uniting together in a crescent-shaped line, their horns all
directed in a living _cheval-de-frise_ against the tiger, they rush
tumultuously at him, and fairly hunt him from the jungle. The pig,
having a short thick neck, and being tremendously muscular, is hard to
kill; but the poor inoffensive cow, with her long-neck, is generally
killed at the first blow, or so dis