TIGEK. 95 



the genealogy of the Lion to have been this : — xVt the commencement of the cold,* the Machaiuodus, 

 or some other Carnivore, has been changed into the Cave Lion ; and when mild weather began to 

 return, the Cave Lion became the common Lion. At this time life had notretui-ned to Europe, and the 

 specific centre of the new animal was probably in Asia ; thence it would spread into Europe and Africa. 



TiGEK : Felis TIGRIS (Map 14). The Tiger begins to appear where the lion begms to die 

 out. It has been observed that two large species of the same family of animals are rarely found in 

 the same district, and those who are fond of referring everything to laws have inferred a law of 

 distribution antagonistic to their co-existence in the same area. I have no great favour for the 

 practice of referring to the operation of special laws phenomena which can be equally well accounted 

 for by the ordinary working of general laws, and in one sense, and that, perhaps, the sense in which 

 the supposed law is most commonly understood, this may be said to be the case with the present fact. 

 Looked at merely as a question why two large nearly allied species rarely, if ever, co-exist in the 

 same area, it seems only one of the ordinary results of the struggle for life, the stronger driving the 

 weaker before them, and in time extinguishing them. But looked at a little deeper, the struggle for 

 life wlU not explain everything. How did the struggle for life ever allow a second species to get to 

 such a head as to need to be di'iven out ? Being allied, the one species most probably was derived 

 from the other. How came the weak one ever to get a footing at all ? The hypothesis hj which I 

 have attempted to explain the stability of estabKshed species, the origin of new species, and the 

 existence of special faunas in special pro's-inccs in many cases explains this. The second species cannot 

 take its origin in the same district as the first, because it is oulj^ by the species undergoing change 

 of condition that it can be developed into a new species. This applies to two species which have 

 sprung the one from the other. In other cases as the present, where two neighbouring species may 

 have originated in diffei'ent regions, from a common ancestor, and from different points of its range, 

 and come in contact hj extending their limits, the ordinary efiect of the struggle for life wiU 

 come into operation, and the stronger wiU destroy or dispossess the weaker. 



The common notion, with regard to the Tiger, is, that it is a tropical animal which requires a 

 warm climate to live in. The researches of late explorers reveal a veiy different state of things. 

 Beginning at lofty Ararat and the frosty Caucasus on the west, and ending at the island of 

 Saghalien on the east, its range stretches across the whole of Asia, with the exception of the 

 high Thibetan table-land of Central Asia. Mr. Blj^th mentions that a few are annually killed in 

 Tm'kish Georgia. It is found in greater numbers in the Elburz mountains, south of the Caspian Sea 

 (the ancient Hyrcania) . North of the Hindu Kosh it occurs in Bokhara, and proved troublesome 

 to the Russian Surveying Expedition on the shores of the Aral in mid-winter.f It is also found on 

 the Irtisch and in the Altai region, and thence, eastward to Amur-land, where it is very destructive 

 to cattle, and so round, by China and ludo-Cliina, to India, southward of the Ilimmalayahs ; 



* The reader will bear in mind that it is part of my operate. During the whole of tlic glacial epoch, however, 



theory that all changes in form take place soon after the as the cold advanceil or retreated, perhaps ofteucr than 



. alteration in condition is experienced. I hold that we once, and subjected new subjects to a change of one kind 



must look for all changes at the commencement of a or otlicr, there must have been a succession of change 



period of alteration ; not after it has been some time in as the altei-ation successively reached new individuals ; 



operation. Of course, when I say soon, I do not moan but that does not interfere with the general principle that 



in the twinkling of an eye ; but what, in comparison the altei-atiou of species must always take place compa- 



to the time of which we treat, is not much larger — say a rativcly shoitly after the change of condition, 

 few hundred, or thousand years. Such a speck as leaves + Blvth, op. cit., p. 182. 



no trace in time, but long enough to allow the medicine to 



