THE TIGER. 51 



Turkestan, Afghanistan, India, Assam, Burma, the Malay Pen- 

 insula, Sumatra, Java, and China, to Manchuria and Amurland. 

 In India found almost everywhere, from the Himalaya (where 

 ''t ascends to the height of 6,000 or 7,000 feet above the sea- 

 level) to Cape Comorin ; but unknown in Ceylon. As men- 

 tioned above, its absence from the latter island leads to the 

 inference that the Tiger is a comparatively recent immigrant 

 into India from the east or north. It has frequently been 

 stated that the Tiger is found in Borneo; but according to a 

 list of the Mammals of that island published by Mr. Everett in 

 the " Proceedings of the Zoological Society " for 1892, this is 

 not the case. Sumatra and Java seem, therefore, to mark the 

 limits of its eastern range in this region : a circumstance 

 strongly in favour of its northern origin. Associated with 

 those of the Mammoth, fossilised remains of the Tiger have 

 been discovered in the New Siberian Islands, situated some 

 io° within the Arctic Circle, and only slightly to the south of 

 the parallel of the North Cape. 



Habits. — Fully equal, if, indeed, not superior to the Lion in 

 strength, activity, and courage, the Tiger is likewise one of the 

 few non-climbing Cats ; but it is specially distinguished from 

 its near cousin by its much more silent habits, as well as by its 

 marked partiality for water, in the near neighbourhood of which 

 its lair is always situated. It is this partiality for water that 

 makes Tigers so numerous in the Sandarbans and on Saugor 

 Island, at the mouth of the Hughli, where some of the finest 

 specimens are to be met with. As nocturnal in its general 

 habits as the Lion, the Tiger is a much less sociable animal 

 than the latter, the males generally going about alone, and the 

 sexes only coming together during the breeding-season. Oc- 

 casionally, however, five or six Tigers have been seen in 

 company ; and it appears that these are family-parties which 

 have remained together, instead of dispersing after the usual 



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