458 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1914. 
hunt its prey. Tigers may live altogether upon wild game found in 
the forests or upon domestic cattle. It is estimated that at least 
20,000 head of cattle are carried off by tigers in India‘during a single 
year. After becoming accustomed to cattle stealing and overcoming 
their natural fear of man, they not infrequently attack human beings. 
The man-eating tiger, as he is called, is the most terrible of beasts. 
He is crafty and moves so noiselessty in the darkness of the night 
that he has been known to snatch people from their beds without 
awakening neighboring sleepers. While not so numerous as formerly, 
tigers are still a scourge and a menace in many parts of Asia. 
Tigers caught when very young may be tamed, but they can hardly 
be said to be ever safe as household pets. Any flesh-eating animal, 
even if reared in captivity and fed on milk, rice, and similar food, 
may seem to be quite tame and harmless; but if it gets the sight and 
smell of blood or bloody flesh, its innate instinct asserts itself and it 
becomes ferocious and is no longer to be trusted. 
The animal shown in plate 15 is a large specimen, probably from 
Central India. On a hot day he was very fond of lazily immersing 
himself in a tank of water, very much as he would have done in his 
native jungle. The artist has caught him in the act of yawning. He 
was quite unmoved by the presence of visitors, and in order to show 
him at his best it was necessary to rouse him from his sleepy attitude. 
The American jaguar is often called the tiger, or ‘‘tigre,”’ by the 
natives of South and Central America. It resembles the leopard 
much more nearly, as it has the same general structure and a similar 
coloring, though its spots are larger and arranged in groups. It is 
much heavier than the leopard, and has enormously powerfuljaws. It 
ranges from Patagonia to the northern boundary of Mexico, and has 
even been found in the United States. 
It preys upon all wild life in its region—animals, fishes, and even 
birds—but rarely attacks man. In the southern forests it sometimes 
lives in trees, but it is found also on the treeless plains, showing con- 
siderable ability to accommodate itself to changes of climate, food, 
and general conditions. 
Those who live in the country in Canada or along the Ganddian 
border have doubtless heard of the “‘lucifee” (French foun cervier), or 
Canadian lynx, about which blood-curdling stories are told. The 
animal certainly has a most ferocious aspect and it is not strange 
that its weird, unearthly, screeching cry, its glaring eyes and erect 
hair, seen in the dusky wood, should frighten the casual passer-by and 
lead him to seek the shotgun kept for such emergencies behind the 
kitchen door. The early French settlers gave it the name of loup 
cervier (deer wolf) from its supposed habit of springing from trees 
upon the backs of deer and drinking their blood. These, however, 
are merely woodsmen’s exaggerations, for the creature does not kill 
