. He dodges from side to side. A tiger can
always turn faster than any horned cattle. A tiger may even come to
within a few yards of the prey, and jump clear over it! Then on landing
on the ground, the tiger can turn at once and reach the prey from the
side. Then he gives a quick blow with his paw on the neck of the prey.
One blow is usually enough to stun the prey and knock it down.

Sometimes the prey is so frightened when it first sees the tiger, that
it does not try to face the tiger with its horns at all. Instead, the
prey stands trembling with terror, and lets the tiger come right up to
it from the side. Then the tiger gets up on his hind legs, places one
paw on the prey's shoulder, and with the other paw he gives a terrific
blow on its neck.

But if the prey is not too frightened, and it struggles when the tiger
is trying to strike it, then the tiger uses a different method. He
plunges downward and seizes the prey from underneath by the _throat_. He
plants his hind legs firmly on the ground, a little bit away from the
side of the prey. In that way he gets a little more "leverage," as it is
called.

You have seen a man tilt a heavy box over on its side by placing a
crowbar under it, then lifting up the crowbar. Well, the tiger acts
somewhat like that. While still holding the prey by its throat in his
jaws, he gives a sudden jerk upward with his head. In that way the prey
loses its balance and topples over on its side, just like the box.

When the tiger or the tigress is teaching the cubs to catch horned
cattle in these different ways, the cubs of course stay a little behind
and watch how their father or mother does it.

So in every case, as you will understand, the tiger cubs have to learn
from their parents how to get their living in the jungle.

CHAPTER VIII

The Tigress Mother's Special Duties

So far I have described to you how the tiger cubs learn the lessons of
the jungle from their father and mother.

But sometimes they have to learn some of their lessons from their mother
alone. Food may be scarce in that part of the jungle. A tiger family
eats so much that even if they catch a large wild pig or a deer every
day, it will hardly provide more than a single meal for a tiger, a
tigress, and two or three growing cubs.

And as they do not usually catch prey every day, the family eats only
about two or three times a week. When the cubs are from six to ten
months old and need more and more food