232 REV. G. S. DOBBIE ON MAMMALIA IN EUROPE. 
The fiercest denizens of the wilderness have their 
functions and their destinies; and the sportsman who, for 
the mere sake of pleasure, destroys but one of them, may 
call himself a naturalist, but a true lover of nature he 
cannot be. Their increase must be checked; and the 
world is certainly happier to-day than it was when they 
were captured by thousands to tear other species to pieces, 
or to contend with the bestiarii on the blood-stained arena 
of the heathen amphitheatre; but they are the acknow- 
ledged property of Him for whose eternal purposes they are 
and were created: and if the present generation do not 
exert itself to save from extinction the vast majority of 
existing forms, it will lose the last opportunity of avoiding 
a calamity which its progeny will bitterly deplore.* 
* Pompey exhibited at Rome 600 lions; Cesar 400, other generals at 
different times from 100 to 200. Commodus is reported to have killed 100 
lions with 100 darts. The most ferocious of the Roman Emperors—e.g., 
Nero, Caracalla, Elagabalus, Maximin—kept large numbers of wild beasts in 
confinement for cruel purposes. 
Leopards were also brought from Africa and Asia in vast numbers to take 
part in the combats which delighted the Roman public. Augustus presented 
420 of these animals, Pompey 410, Probus 200, and Scaurus 150. 
Bears, wolves, and other animals then abundant in Europe were of too 
common occurrence to be recorded here. Making all allowance for the great 
abundance of wild beasts in the days of the Western Empire, we cannot but 
believe that institutions existed at various convenient places where they were 
collected and even bred, so that the continuous demand for them might be 
conveniently supplied. 
It may here be mentioned that, notwithstanding the opinion of certain 
modern historians and romancers, there is no substantial proof of the Tiger 
(Felis tigris) ever having appeared in considerable numbers on the Roman 
amphitheatre. The animal was probably first exhibited in Europe by 
Pompey, so that it is by no means likely that the word ‘ tigris’ mentioned 
by Virgil and other classical writers can refer to this species. Indeed, it 
can hardly be supposed that the tiger, since it was to be found nowhere 
nearer Rome than the shores of the Caspian Sea, could ever have been a 
familiar object to the inhabitants of the capital. An exceptionally large 
variety of the leopard, though now rarely exhibited in Europe, still inhabits 
the Western Atlas, and was most likely the ‘Tigris’ of the ancients. The 
confusion caused by the different names, ‘ Tigris,’ ‘Pardus,’ ‘ Pardalis,’ 
* Panthera,’ ‘Uncia,’ ete., is by no means surprising when we remember that, 
in our own day, leopards in Africa, and jaguars in South America, are 
usually mentioned as tigers, At the same time, it must not be forgotten 
that several classical writers were perfectly familiar with the true, striped 
. tiger of the East. 
