But the most important thing they have to learn is how to catch the prey, and how to kill it for themselves--that is, how to provide their own food. Their parents teach them to do that gradually from time to time, in many lessons.
_Tiger Cubs Learn to Kill Prey, After their Parents have Caught It_
As they are not yet big enough to _catch_ the prey, they are first taught how to _kill_ the prey, after their father or mother has caught it alive for them. And that is another wonder of the jungle, and another good quality of the tiger. If the tiger catches a deer, even the largest kind of deer, he could kill it at one blow, so as to eat it at once. But if the tiger is the father of a young family, he thinks of his family all the time; he remembers that he must not only provide his young children with food, but he must also _teach them their lessons_.
So when he finds a big red stag, he jumps upon it, but he does not kill it outright. Instead, he merely breaks its hind legs, so that the stag cannot run away. Then he calls the cubs and the mother tigress. The tiger and tigress stand aside, and tell their children to kill the stag. They will not at first show the children how to do it. The children must try first to find that out for themselves.
So the cubs first prowl around the stag, and try to seize it anywhere. But the cubs cannot get their teeth deep enough into the stag's body; and as the stag is still alive, it shakes them off. The cubs try to seize the stag at other parts of its body, but each time they fail to hold on; instead, the stag shakes them off. And if the cubs dare to come in front of the stag, the stag can still use its antlers to drive them off.
Then how can the tiger cubs manage to seize the prey at all with their teeth? Well, one of the cubs may remember the very first lesson it had several weeks before: that was to eat the _throat_ of the prey, because it was the softest part--as I have already described to you. So it remembers that the throat is the softest part.
Then that cub comes to the side of the stag, makes a sudden plunge downward, and seizes it by the throat. Even then the stag tries to shake off the cub--but the other two cubs then come to their brother's help; they also seize the stag by the throat, one from each side.