CHAPTER IX
The Special Qualities of Tiger and Tigress
Now I am going to tell you a few more things about the tiger, from which you will realize what a wonderful animal he is.
First, the tiger"s _size_. The finest specimen of the tiger is the Royal Bengal tiger. Such a tiger, when full grown, is sometimes seven feet long, without including the tail; the tail is usually half as long as the body. The tigress is slightly smaller.
In height a Bengal tiger often measures three and a half feet from the shoulder to the ground; so his head would be more than four feet from the ground. Hence, if you take his length into account, you will understand that the tiger is really the largest feline or animal of the Cat Tribe.
I do not think that you have often seen a really large tiger in the zoo.
Most of the tigers in a zoo were caught as cubs; that is, the mother or the father was shot by hunters, and the cubs were captured alive.
Now, just think. If a human child were locked up in a room all his life, without any exercise, then he would be very stunted and small, even when he had reached the age of a man. So a tiger cub, brought up in a cage all its life, never grows to its proper size. For this reason most of the tigers in a zoo are much smaller than those tigers that grow up in the jungle.
The most wonderful thing about the tiger is his strength; he is the strongest animal of the Cat Tribe. That is proved by the way in which he carries his prey. If the prey be a deer or a man, he seizes the prey in his jaws by the middle of the body--just as a cat seizes a mouse! And the tiger carries such a prey in that manner to his den, which may be more than a mile away.
But a heavy animal, such as a cow, he carries in a different manner.
Yes, a tiger _carries_ away a cow; he does not merely _drag_ it along the ground, as a lion does. This is the way the tiger carries a cow, after killing it:
He first seizes the cow in his jaws by the back of its neck. Then he rears up on his hind legs and swings the cow over his shoulder on to his back--just as a man swings a loaded sack on to his back. Then the tiger stands on all four legs again, and trots along with his burden. Of course, he still holds the neck of the cow in his jaws, just as the man carrying the sack holds the upper end of the sack in his hand.
I shall now finish with tigers by telling you three stories,--true stories, of course. From these stories you will understand that tigers and tigresses sometimes have the same kind of feelings that _we_ have.
_Both Tiger and Tigress Defend their Cubs_
I have told you that in a tiger family, when the cubs are very young, they must be guarded all the time by either their father or their mother. One day it happened that a tiger had killed a bullock. As he could not carry it to his den, he first ate enough of the bullock to satisfy his hunger. Then he came home to his den, and sent the tigress out to eat her share, while he guarded their two cubs in the den.
But three English officers had gone hunting in the jungle, each of them on an elephant; and it so happened that they came toward the tiger"s den.
The three hunters saw the tiger and the two cubs he was guarding. The hunters knew that if they killed the tiger they could catch the two cubs alive. So they fired their guns at once at the tiger; and as they were then only about a hundred yards away, they all hit the tiger.
Now, if the tiger had not had the cubs to defend, there would not have been much of a fight. Why? Because, as I shall tell you later, it usually takes much more than three hunters on three elephants to hunt one tiger. Each of the three wounds the tiger got might have killed or disabled any other wild animal; but instead, the three wounds together only made the tiger furious.
If he had been alone, he would have come like a flash of lightning at the nearest elephant, leaped upon its back, and killed the hunter on it--before the hunter could shoot again. Of course, the other two hunters could then kill the tiger; but the tiger would at least have killed _one_ of the hunters.
That is exactly what the tiger would have done, if he had been alone.
But the tiger had his children to defend. He must try to guard them as well as he could. So he just took one of the cubs in his mouth--as you have seen a cat take up her kitten--and leaped with the cub over a thicket and hid the cub there.
Then he leaped back to the den to take away the second cub. That gave the three hunters enough time to load and take aim again. So all three of the hunters fired at the tiger again, just as he was lifting up the second cub; and the bullets went through his heart. If he had been any other animal, he would have dropped dead right there. But a tiger lives about three seconds after he _ought_ to be dead; and in those three seconds he can give just one leap and kill anything.
But the hunters were beyond his reach. So he gave that one leap toward them, and tore up the ground instead, as he could not tear up the men; then he agreed to lie down and be truly dead.
The three hunters got down from their elephants and came to the den.
They found that one of the last bullets had pa.s.sed right through the tiger"s body, and had killed the cub he was trying to carry to safety.
The hunters were sorry that the cub had been killed. So they searched for the first cub, which the tiger had hidden behind the thicket. They found the cub and took it with them.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Tiger Protecting his Cub]
The hunters mounted their elephants and came back to their tent, where they had been staying. They put a dog"s steel collar around the neck of the cub, and tied him up to the tent post by a chain. The cub was so frightened and helpless that it lay down on the ground and was very quiet. The three men sat down in the tent and chatted for a while.
Suddenly they heard a terrible roar outside. They s.n.a.t.c.hed up their guns, but they could not tell from which side the roar came--just as when you hear a terrible clap of thunder close by, you cannot tell from which side the thunder comes. And hearing this roar, the cub jumped up and yelped in answer; and he tugged at his chain furiously. He had become a little tiger in his nature.
Suddenly a huge yellow form shot into the tent. It was a tigress. She seized the cub"s collar in her mouth, and snapped the chain with a tug, like a piece of thread. The next second she leaped out of the tent with the cub, and vanished. And the three men had not had time to aim a gun.
None of them really wished to.
Yes, she was the mother of the cub. When she had returned home from dinner, she had found her home broken up--her husband killed, one of her children killed, and the other child stolen. So, all that she could do was to regain her lost child by tracing it by its scent.
This she did. She regained her cub even by facing the same guns that had killed her husband. For a tigress mother, like any other mother in the jungle, will face death to save her child.
_The Tiger Family"s Lost Dinner_
Now I shall tell you another true story. It will show you what sort of a husband and father in everyday life a tiger is.
Near a jungle there was a river. At a special place in the river there was a bend. It was a good place for fishing, as the water there had plenty of fish.
One afternoon two men went to fish there with fishing rods. As there was a jungle about a mile from the place, the men took their guns with them, in case any wild animals came from the jungle to attack them.
After a time one of the men hooked a fish. It must have been a big fish, as it tugged at the line furiously. The man who had hooked the fish had to run along the bank of the river to _play_ the fish, while his friend kept shouting to him to advise him what to do. In this way both the men were busy, and forgot to think of anything else.
Suddenly they saw a flash of yellow. It came straight from a bush toward the man who had hooked the fish. It was a tiger!
The tiger must have stalked the two men silently from the jungle; and in that way he must have crept up to the bush, while the two men were busy trying to land the fish.
The tiger gave a rush and a leap, and fell upon the man who had hooked the fish. He grabbed the man and leaped back with him into the bush, before the other man could s.n.a.t.c.h up his gun and take aim to save his friend.
Now you will remember what I told you: that a tiger carries a man in his jaws just as a cat carries a mouse; that is, the tiger holds the man by the middle of his body, about the waist.
Luckily the man was wearing a waistband of thick cloth; so the tiger"s fangs did not hurt the man very severely, as the fangs happened to bite the thick waistband. But still the man had been stunned by the shock when the tiger had leaped upon him. And the tiger thought that he had killed the man outright. That was very lucky for the man--as you will understand presently.
The man regained his senses while the tiger was still carrying him. He knew at once that he was in the jaws of a tiger. That is perhaps the most terrible danger for a man to be in. Few men have ever been in the very jaws of a tiger in the heart of the jungle--and yet have escaped.
The man knew that, and so he was terribly frightened. But life is so precious that one must never despair of saving his life. If you are in the most terrible danger, _you must never give up hope_. You must try to find some way of escape.
So the man began thinking, even while the tiger was carrying him. He made up his mind at once. He must pretend to be dead. So he did not move or make the least bit of sound. Even then he did not see how he could escape, as the tiger would soon start _eating_ him! But still he would not despair.
The tiger carried the man to his den in the jungle. The den was just a hollow in the ground under a large tree. The tiger dumped the man into the hollow. The man thought his end had now come. He could not escape from right in front of the tiger"s eyes. And he thought that the tiger would start eating him at once. Even though he was really alive, the tiger would eat him just the same.
But, to his surprise, the tiger did not start eating him at once.
Instead, the tiger looked around, and gave a purr, and then a growl.
What did that mean? The man could not tell.
Then the tiger just flung upon the man some of the sand from the side of the hollow. The man understood _that_: the tiger was trying to hide or _cache_ his food--as some wild animals do.