Lockyer and the present author in the Nineteenth Century for November 1877. It will therefore suffice here to state the views of the Indian Meteorological Department on the intricate questions involved. The following are the inferences which the meteorology of India appears to suggest, if not to establish. There is a tendency at the minimum sun-spot periods to prolonged excessive pressure over India, and at the maximum sun-spot periods to an unusual development of the winter rains, and to the occurrence of abnormally heavy snowfall over the Himálayan region (to a greater extent probably in the Western than the Eastern Himálayas). This appears also to be usually followed by a weak south-west monsoon. The characteristics of a weak monsoon are, great irregularity in the distribution of the rainfall over the whole of India, and the occurrence of heavy local rainfalls, which tend, by a law of rainfall and of air-motion, to recur over the same limited areas. The irregularity of rainfall distribution is often shown by the persistence of dry land winds and the prolonged absence of rain over considerable areas. These areas of drought and famine are partly marked off by nature, depending to a certain extent on the geographical features and position of the district. Thus, the rains are more likely to fall below the amount necessary for cultivation in the dry region of the Deccan or in Upper India, than over the Malabar coast area or the Province of Bengal.

CHAPTER XXIV.

Lion.

ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY OF INDIA.

Mammals. WILD ANIMALS.-First among the wild animals of India must be mentioned the lion (Felis leo), which is recorded to have been not uncommon within historical times in Hindustán Proper and the Punjab. The lion is now confined to the Gir, or rocky hill-desert and forest of Káthiáwár. A peculiar variety is there found, marked by the almost total absence of a mane; but whether this variety deserves to be classed as a distinct species, naturalists have not yet determined. The lion has now almost entirely disappeared; and the official Gazetteer of Káthiáwár states that there are now (1884) probably not more than ten or a dozen lions and lionesses left in the whole Gir forest tract. They are strictly preserved. The former extent of the lion's range, or the degree to which its presence impressed the imagination, may be inferred from the common personal names, Sinh or Singh, Sher, and Haidar, which all signify lion.' Sher, however, is also applied to the tiger.

Tiger.

The characteristic beast of prey in India is the tiger (Felis tigris), which is found in every part of the country from the slopes of the Himalayas to the Sundarban swamps. Sir Joseph Fayrer, the highest living authority on this subject, believes that 12 feet is the maximum length of the tiger, when measured from nose to tip of tail immediately after death. The advance of cultivation, even more than the incessant attacks of sportsmen, has gradually caused the tiger to become a rare animal in large tracts of country; but it is scarcely probable that he ever will be exterminated from India. The malarious tarái fringing the Himalayas, the uninhabitable swamps of the Gangetic delta, and the wide jungles of the central plateau, are at present the chief home of the tiger. His favourite food appears to be deer, antelope, and wild hog. When these abound, he does not attack domestic cattle. Indeed, the natives of certain Districts consider the tiger as in some sort their protector, for he saves their crops from destruction by the wild animals on which he feeds. But when

TIGER: LEOPARD: CHEETAH.

653

once he develops a taste for human blood, then the slaughter which he works becomes truly formidable.

A single tiger is

Another killed
A third caused

Tiger.

The confirmed man-eater, generally an old beast, disabled Manfrom overtaking his usual prey, seems to accumulate his tale of eating victims in sheer cruelty rather than for food. known to have killed 108 people in three years. an average of about 80 persons per annum. 13 villages to be abandoned, and 250 square miles of land to be thrown out of cultivation. A fourth, so lately as 1869, killed 127 people, and stopped a public road for many weeks, until the opportune arrival of an English sportsman, who killed him. Such cases are, of course, exceptional, and generally refer to a past period, but they explain the superstitious awe with which the tiger is regarded by the natives.

The favourite mode of shooting the tiger is from the back of elephants, or from elevated platforms (macháns) of boughs in the jungle. In Central India and Bombay, tigers are shot on foot. In Assam, they are sometimes speared from boats, and in the Himalayas they are said to be ensnared by bird-lime. Rewards are given by Government to native shikáris for the heads of tigers varying in time and place according to the need. In 1877, 819 persons and 16,137 cattle were reported to have been killed by tigers. On the other side of the account, 1579 tigers were destroyed by native hunters, and £3777 paid in rewards; besides the slaughter by English sportsmen. In 1882, no fewer than 895 persons and 16,517 cattle were returned as killed by tigers. The sum of £4800 was paid during the year to native shikáris for the destruction of 1726 tigers.

The leopard or panther (Felis pardus) is far more common Leopard. than the tiger in all parts of India, and at least equally destructive to life. The greatest length of the Indian leopard is about 7 feet 6 inches. A black variety, as beautiful as it is rare, is sometimes found in the extreme south of the Indian peninsula, and also in Java. The cheetah or hunting leopard Cheetah. (Felis jubata) must be carefully distinguished from the leopard proper. This animal appears to be a native only of the Deccan, where it is trained for hunting the antelope. In some respects it approaches the dog more nearly than the cat tribe. Its limbs are long, its hair rough, and its claws blunt and only partially retractile. The speed with which it bounds upon its prey, when loosed from the cart, exceeds the swiftness of any other wild mammal. If it misses its first attack, it scarcely ever attempts to follow, but returns to its master. Among

Other species.

Wolf.

Fox.

Jackal.

Dog.

other species of the family Felide found in India may be mentioned the ounce or snow leopard (F. unica), the clouded tiger (F. macroscelis), the marbled tiger cat (F. marmorata), the jungle cat (F. chaus), and the common viverrine cat (F. viverrina).

Wolves (Canis lupus) abound throughout the open country, but are rare in the wooded districts. Their favourite prey is sheep, but they are also said to run down antelopes and hares, or rather catch them by lying in ambush. Instances of their attacking man are not uncommon; and in 1882, 278 persons, principally children, besides 8661 cattle, were reported to have been killed by wolves. In 1827, upwards of 30 children were carried off by wolves in a single parganá or fiscal division ; and the story of Romulus and Remus has had its counterpart in India within recent times. The Indian wolf has a dingy reddish-white fur, some of the hairs being tipped with black. By some naturalists it is regarded as a distinct species, under the name of Canis pallipes. Three distinct varieties, the white, the red, and the black wolf, are found in the Tibetan Himalayas.

The Indian fox (Vulpes bengalensis) is comparatively rare; but the jackal (Canis aureus) abounds everywhere, making night hideous by its never-to-be-forgotten yells. The jackal, and not the fox, is usually the animal hunted by the packs of hounds kept by Europeans.

The wild dog or dhole is found in very many of the wilder jungles of India, including Assam and British Burma. Its characteristic is that it hunts in packs, sometimes containing 30 dogs, and does not give tongue. When once a pack of wild dogs has put up any animal, whether deer or tiger, that animal's doom is sealed. They do not leave it for days, and finally bring it to bay, or run it down exhausted. These wild dogs have sometimes been half domesticated, and trained to hunt for the use of man. A peculiar variety of wild dog exists in the Karen Hills of Burma, thus described from a specimen in confinement. It was black and white, as hairy as a Skyeterrier, and as large as a medium-sized spaniel. It had an invariable habit of digging a hole in the ground, into which it crawled backwards, remaining there all day with only its nose and ferrety eyes visible. Among other dogs of India are the pariah, which is merely a mongrel, run wild and half-starved; the poligar dog, an immense creature peculiar to the south; the greyhound, used for coursing; and the mastiff of Tibet and Bhután.

BEAR: WILD ELEPHANT.

655

The striped hyæna (Hyæna striata) is common, being found Hyæna. wherever the wolf is absent. Like the wolf, it is very destructive both to the flocks and to children.

Of bears, the common black or sloth bear (Ursus labiatus) Bear. is common throughout India wherever rocky hills and forests occur. It is distinguished by a white horse-shoe mark on its breast. Its food consists of ants, honey, and fruit. When disturbed it will attack man, and it is a dangerous antagonist, for it always strikes at the face. The Himalayan or Tibetan sunbear (Ursus tibetanus) is found along the north, from the Punjab to Assam. During the summer it remains high up in the mountains, near the limit of snow, but in the winter it descends to 5000 feet, and even lower. Its congener, the Malayan sun-bear (Helarctos malayanus), is found in British Burma, where also there is a smaller species (Helarctos euryspilus), and a very large animal reported to be as big as the American grizzly. There were 114 persons returned as killed by bears in 1882.

The elephant (Elephas indicus) is found in many parts of The EleIndia, though not in the north-west. Contrary to what might phant. be anticipated from its size and from the habits of its African cousin, the Indian elephant is now, at any rate, an inhabitant, not of the plains, but of the hills; and even on the hills it is usually found among the higher ridges and plateaux, and not in the valleys. From the peninsula of India the elephant has been gradually exterminated, being only found now in the primæval forests of Coorg, Mysore, and Travancore, and in the Tributary States of Orissa. It still exists in considerable numbers along the tarái or submontane fringe of the Himálayas. The main source of supply at the present time is the confused mass of hills which forms the north-east boundary of British India, from Assam to Burma. Two varieties are there distinguished, the gunda or tusker, and the makna or hine, which has no tusks.

The reports of the height of the elephant, like those of its intelligence, seem to be exaggerated. The maximum is probably 12 feet. If hunted, the elephant must be attacked on foot, and the sport is therefore dangerous, especially as the animal has but few parts vulnerable to a bullet. The regular mode of catching elephants is by means of a kheda or gigantic Elephantstockade, into which a wild herd is driven, then starved into catching. submission, and tamed by animals already domesticated. The practice of capturing them in pitfalls is discouraged as cruel and wasteful. Elephants now form a Government monopoly