144 EVOLUTION, OLD AND NEW. 



founded with the tiger, leopard, ounce, &c., while, on 

 the contrary, those species, which appear to be least 

 distant from the lion, are very sufficiently indistinguish- 

 able, so that travellers and uomenclators are continually 

 confounding them." * 



If this is not pure malice, never was a writer more 

 persistently unfortunate in little ways. Why remind 

 us here that the species which come nearest to the lion 

 are so hard to distinguish? Why not have said nothing 

 about it ? As it is, the case stands thus : we are re- 

 quired to admit close resemblance between the leopard 

 and the tiger, while we are to deny it between the tiger 

 and the lion, in spite of there being no greater outward 

 difference between the first than between the second 

 pair, and in spite of the hurried whisper " cat with a 

 mane and a long tail " still haunting our ears. Isidore 

 Geoffroy and his followers may consent to this arrange- 

 ment, but I hope the majority of my readers will not 

 do so. 



I went on to the account of the tiger with some 

 interest to see the line which Buffon would take con- 

 cerning it. I anticipated that we should find cats, 

 pumas, lynxes, &c., to be really very like tigers, and 

 was surprised to learn that the "true" tiger, though 

 certainly not unlike these animals, was still to be 

 distinguished from " many others which had since been 

 called tigers." He is on no account to be confounded 

 with these, in spite of the obvious temptation to con- 

 found him. He is " a rare animal, little known to the 

 ancients, and badly described by the moderns." He is 



* Tom. ix. p. 11, 1761. 



