FELIs, 167 
It will be seen that my calculation is considerably out in the Cooch 
Behar tiger, so I asked the Maharajah to tell me, from the appearance 
of the skull, whether the animal was young or old. He sent it over to 
me, and I have no hesitation in saying that it was that of a young tiger, 
who, in another year, might have put on the extra nine inches; the 
parietal sutures, which in the old tiger (as in Mr. Shillingford’s 
specimens) are completely obliterated, are in this one almost open. 
It must be remembered that the bones of the skull do not grow in the 
same ratio to the others, and that they attain their full size before those 
of the rest of the body. ‘Therefore it is only in the case of the adult 
that accurate results can be calculated upon. Probably I have not done 
wisely in selecting a portion of the skull as a standard—a bone of the 
body, such as a femur or humerus might be more reliable—but I was 
driven to it by circumstances. Sportsmen, as a rule, do not keep any- 
thing but the skull, and for general purposes it would have been of no use 
my giving as a test what no one could get hold of except in a museum. 
I have always understood that the tiger of the plains grew to a greater 
size, that is in length, than the tiger of hilly country. I have never 
shot a tiger in Lower Bengal, therefore I cannot judge of the form of 
the beast, whether he be more lanky or not. If an eleven-foot Bengal 
tiger be anything like as robust in proportion as our Central Indian 
ones, I should say he was an enormous creature, but I believe the 
Central and Southern tiger to be the heavier one, and this is borne out 
by an illustration given by Mr. Shillingford in one of his able letters, 
which have called forth so much hostile criticism. He compares one of 
his largest with the measurement of a Southern India tiger :— 
: : Total of 
Locality of Tiger. | Length. | Sith of | Girth of | pai, | (Round | eight. | feet and 
3 3 ; inches. 
Hig hee fia iis ey re ft) in. ft. in. 5 heh ft. in. 
Eraueal, ©. = || II 0 4 6 2 10 Za Zee 3. Fo eas 
Southern India. | 10 2 Geer Biel Book 2 10 3 Oye aeons: 
The shorter tiger has an advantage of nearly two feet in all-round 
measurement. 
Sir Joseph Fayrer has also been called in question for his belief in 
twelve feet tigers, but what he says is reasonable enough. ‘‘ The tiger 
should be measured from the nose along the spine to the tip of the tail, 
as he lies dead on the spot where he fell, before the skin is removed. 
One that is ten feet by this measurement is large, and the full-grown male 
does not often exceed this, though no doubt larger individuals (males) are 
