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Remarks: Mr. Shillingford's tiger's tail was over 3 ft. 2 in., which
would make it 11 ft. The Maharajah writes to me that his measured
on the ground 9 ft. 11 in. See further on.
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It will be seen that my calculation is considerably out in the Cooch
Behar tiger, so I asked the Maharajah to tell me, from the appearance
of the skull, whether the animal was young or old. He sent it over
to me, and I have no hesitation in saying that it was that of a young
tiger, who, in another year, might have put on the extra nine inches;
the parietal sutures, which in the old tiger (as in Mr.
Shillingford's specimens) are completely obliterated, are in this
one almost open. It must be remembered that the bones of the skull
do not grow in the same ratio to the others, and that they attain
their full size before those of the rest of the body. Therefore it
is only in the case of the adult that accurate results can be
calculated upon. Probably I have not done wisely in selecting a
portion of the skull as a standard--a bone of the body, such as a
femur or humerus might be more reliable--but I was driven to it by
circumstances. Sportsmen, as a rule, do not keep anything but the
skull, and for general purposes it would have been of no use my giving
as a test what no one could get hold of except in a museum.

I have always understood that the tiger of the plains grew to a
greater size, that is in length, than the tiger of hilly country.
I have never shot a tiger in Lower Bengal, therefore I cannot judge
of the form of the beast, whether he be more lanky or not. If an
eleven-foot Bengal tiger be anything like as robust in proportion
as our Central Indian ones, I should say he was an enormous creature,
but I believe the Central and Southern tiger to be the heavier one,
and this is borne out by an illustration given by Mr. Shillingford
in one of his able letters, which have called forth so much hostile
criticism. He compares one of his largest with the measurement of
a Southern India tiger:--

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Locality of Tiger. | Purneah | Southern India
Length. | 11 ft. 0 in. | 10 ft. 2 in.
Girth of Chest. | 4 ft. 6 in. | 6 ft. 1 in.
Girth of Head. | 2 ft. 10 in. | 3 ft. 5 in.
Tail. | 3 f