d tigress
have.

When the cubs are only a few days old, they are quite helpless. So the
mother stays with them in the den, while the father goes in search of
food. The den is usually a hollow under a large tree.

If the father tiger catches a prey which he can carry, such as a deer,
he brings it home with him. Then he and the tigress eat it together.

But if the prey is too large to carry, such as a bullock or a buffalo?
Then the tiger first eats a good portion right after catching it. Then
he comes home to the den and sends out the tigress to eat her share,
while he stays home in the den and takes care of the cubs.

But here is something for you to think of. In sending the tigress out to
eat her share of the prey, the tiger must _tell_ her where the prey is
lying; otherwise she might go the wrong way. Why? Because the prey might
be lying a mile or more from the den, so that she could not possibly
trace it merely by its _scent_. And the prey might have been caught in
any direction, especially if the tiger had to chase it or stalk it for a
long distance. So nobody could tell beforehand in what direction a tiger
might catch its prey.

The tigress could not merely follow the tiger's _paw marks_ to get to
the prey, as the tiger may have gone out several times that day or the
day before; and so there would be several lines of paw marks, and she
would have to search very long by following all the paw marks in turn.
Yet she always takes the right direction, and gets to the prey quickly.
Hunters in the jungle have found that out. How does she do it?

The only way to explain it is this--the tiger _tells_ her where the
prey has been caught and is now lying. That is what hunters believe from
the actual facts they have observed. Then that shows that animals have a
method of communicating with one another. Of course they do not use
_our_ words. They must have words or sounds, or even signs, of their
own.

Now I shall go on with the tiger family. The cubs, of course, drink
their mother's milk. They do that till they are three months old.

But meanwhile, when they are six weeks old, they can walk and trot. They
are then very playful, and they leap and gambol and tumble over one
another.

They are then able to go about with their father and mother for a short
distance. So if food gets scarce for the tiger and tigress, they leave
their old den altogether, and go to live elsewhere in the jungle where
food may be more plentiful