TIGER HUNT IN VICTORIA.

Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3093, 16 January 1879, Page 1

TIGER HUNT IN VICTORIA.

I The Bendigo Evening News contains the following somewhat improbable story: " It may not be known to all our readers that a gentleman, formerly a resident of Punjaub, India, is now a citizen of ours. When coming to Australia he brought with him several natire animals." Among them was a Bengal tiger whelp. This interesting.,quadruped arrived iafoly, and in doe course found its home in Sandhurst. Its owner, a fatherly man, with many olive branches, allowed his children to play with it, so that familiarity with the animal led the children to sometimes leave the cage open. Yesterday afternoon, as the youthful tiger had finished his dinner—which consists of raw beef given by Masters Johnny and Theodore— finding his cage door open he came out for a sunning. Soon he jumped the garden fence ; .afterwards espying, a goat, cautiously follo|ved, sprang at: it, and quickly devoured the poor animal. The warm blood of the '■ goat having given a fillip to his appetite, he started for other plunder of a like sort. He went down View street, lid when at the reserve gate beside the survey bffice saw a perambulator with* a baby in:it going through; the wicket.p.He sprang at the child, but the nurse-girl instantly got the. vehicle through the gate. The tiger, enraged at its quarry's «soape, started growling v most jfutiously.^ The strange sounds' soon bronght ft lot of dogs about, which barked and yelped round the fierce brute. This evidently had the effec?of putli^the^igeiKoff the scent of the baoy, for he instantly attacked the curs, and before leaving" he had doomed four of. th^em; one of the dogs was a lady's pet lap-dog, a beautiful and costly Prince Charlie. By this time a crowd had gathered around, land one of the spectators fortunately had a revolver with him, and with 000 l aim soon despatched the brute.,, The incident is extremely curious, and' were it not so well authenticated by so many witnesses would be past belief. We sincerely hope that gentlemen from India will, iv future, leave their tigers behind them."