THE CLOUDED TIGER 55 



England, apparently from disorders consequent on 

 cutting its second set of teeth/ The skin was 

 preserved and ultimately presented to the Zoological 

 Society by Raffles ; the specimen was still in their 

 museum in 1838, though erroneously stated in the 

 catalogue to have "died in the menagerie." Such 

 was impossible, for the Zoological Society's menagerie 

 did not exist till 1826, by which time the clouded 

 tiger had been dead two years. The Society's 

 museum in 1838 also contained a second very young 

 specimen. In 1862 the British Museum contained 

 three Indian and one Sumatran skin of the rimau 

 dahan. 



The romance which early surrounded this beautiful 

 beast received a fresh accession in the middle of the 

 last century. Mr. Swinhoe, a British Vice-Consul, 

 made during 1861-64 ^ ^^^§ stay on the island of 

 Formosa, then but recently thrown open to trade. 

 Having visited Sawo and Lungkeaow, he noticed 

 that the savages of the interior of the island used to 

 bring to the coast numbers of skins to barter with 

 the Chinese. He obtained from amongst these 

 three curious specimens, two being adult and a third 

 apparently immature. Closely agreeing in coloration 

 with the clouded tiger skins which he had seen in the 

 British Museum, these pelts differed from them in 

 their yellower tint and in the shortness of the tail. 

 The typical clouded tiger is noted for the ample 



1 The second canine had already cut tlie jaw. 



