THE LARGEST LIVING CREATURES I4I 



ranging from the Caspian Sea and the Euphrates river to the 

 Okhotsk Sea and Amurland and southward throughout China, 

 India and the jNIalay countries to some of the islands in the 

 :Malayan archipehigo. The Largest tigers are those in the 

 Amur country, where it is extremely cold in winter. I saw a 

 skin of one shot on SakhaHn which I was told was 12 feet long. 



The animal called "tigre" in Central and South America 

 is the jaguar, while the African ''tiger" is the leopard. 



The lion is of about the same size as the tiger, but usually 

 slio'htly less. The longest measure 10 feet 6 inches, of which 

 the tail occupies about 3 feet. Lionesses are about i foot 

 shorter than their mates. 



Lions occur all over Africa, excepting in the regions where 

 they have been exterminated, and locally eastward to north- 

 western India. Within historic times they lived in south- 

 eastern Europe west to the river Potamo and the Pindus 

 mountains and south to the Gulf of Corinth, as well as through- 

 out the greater part of northern and central Hindustan. 



The animal called "lion" in North and South America is 

 the puma or cougar. 



By way of contrast to these animals the smallest mammal 

 is a httle shrew known from only three captured in the Dis- 

 trict of Columbia and in \'irginia, which has a body length 

 of only 23/8 inches with i 3/16 inches of tail. 



The ostrich is the largest of the birds, standing as much as 

 8 feet high and weighing 300 pounds. The true ostriches, of 

 several different kinds, are confined to Africa and Arabia. The 

 American ostriches are more properly called rheas, and the 

 Australian, emus. Both the rheas and the emus are much 

 smaller than the African birds. 



The wandering albatross of the windy southern oceans is the 

 largest of the sea birds. Its body is but 4 feet long; the 

 maximum extent of wing was found to be, from measurements 

 taken on over 100 specimens, 11 feet 4 inches, not so great, 

 therefore, as commonly recorded. All of the other kinds of 

 albatrosses are smaller, though some not much so. 



