Show TRAITS OF THE INDIAN TIGER More Fordable Than the Lion and Brave and Cowardly by Turns New York Sun Speaking of the tiger he is easily the king of all the feline family said Sidney Castron who arrived in New York last week from Calcutta and last night was telling jungle stories to some friends He can whip a lion hands down as has been shown in every case reported where the two have come together to-gether on fair terms The tiger Is as strong and heavy as the lion Is swifter swift-er more ferocious and more dangerous He Is a thorough Asiatic in his traits being subtle crafty and recklessly brave and cowardly by turns with the trouble for the hunter that he never can tell when he flushes a tiger which way c the brute will run whether from him or for him In a fighting temper a tiger will turn upon the hunters beating beat-ing the jungle on elephants leap upon the head or shoulder of the nearest elephant and make things very unpleasantly un-pleasantly lively for the man upon his back A tiger has been known to back tger charce straight upon a full battalion of soldiers and come near to breaking its formation before he could be disposed dis-posed of General Wolseley In a published pub-lished account of his march with a detachment de-tachment to the relief of General Have lock In the Indian mutiny tells how during a night march a tiger sprang Into the midst of his column upon a bullock attached to an ammunition wagon and attempted to carry It away The outcry and flashing of torches drove the tiger from he bullock but he did not tger the field but remained standing under a tree in full view glaring glar-ing at the procession until it had passed pass-ed by As every cartridge and every minute was precious the order was given that no shot be fired at the tiger Nine times out of ten on the other hand the tiger when hunted will run straight away or sneak and double in the thick jungle In the effort to escape In a bit of cover he will lie as close to the ground as a rabbit and all the outcry out-cry and throwing of stones by the line of beaters will not start him unless he Is actually hit In hunting the tiger on foot it is usual to station the lookouts in trees to watch for the appearance of the beast I one of them sees the tiger trying to steal past him he has only to break a dry stick sharply in two and the crackling sound will turn the tiger back In short when the brute once gets scared and suspicious he is one of the biggest cowards alive who will stand wounds without coming to a fight though none the less he always is dangerous dan-gerous when driven to bay with no show to escape < J > The tiger at all times is very liable to panic when confronted suddenly hy anything which he does not understand under-stand The opening of a parasol by a lady has been known to stampede a charging tiger and an experience somewhat similar occurred with a missionary mis-sionary whom I knew who told me the story He was crossing a patch of open country on foot when he saw a tiger stealing toward him from the jungle on one side He had no show to run or fight and so he did the only thing that occurred to him to do and dropping drop-ping on his knees prayed loudly I was a performance evidently new to the tiger which roused his suspicion for he stopped sheered away and at last went back Into the Jungle Another Instance was that of a civil official coming com-ing suddenly upon a tiger In the jungle Jun-gle Both were taken equally by surprise sur-prise and when the man yelled out scat the big cat turned tail and sneaked away As is generally known a maneat ing tiger Is usually an old beast which has got past his time for catching game and seeks an easier prey in human beings be-ings But tigers born of a maneating tigress are always maneaters for they get their first lessons in hunting from their mothers A tigress teaches her whelps to hunt as a cat does her kittens kit-tens by bringing them live prey to practice upon Ten years ago In one of the hill districts of India a tigress was killed whose taking off caused much rejoicing among the natives and was told at length in many of the Indian In-dian and English newspapers She was known all over India as the maneater al maneaer who once had given her whelps a live man to play with She carried on the man from an open hut in the forest where some woodcutters were sleeping His companions took refuge In trees and from their places of safety saw her take the man alive to where the whelps were waiting close by and lay him down before them As the man attempted to crawl away the whelps would cling to his legs with teeth and claws the tigress looking on and purring pur-ring with pleasure Whenever the man imt tnn far away from the ticrpss she would bound after him and bring li i back When the whelps had had enough of their sport the tigress sprang upon the man and holding him down with her forepaws began her meal from his living body |