SELF-COLOURED CATS 



unwinking eye. It is possible that these contrivances 

 have a value to the beast, and prevent some molesta- 

 tion. " The fery tigere full of felonye " has a purely 

 Asiatic range, and, like the puma, is indifferent to heat 

 or to cold. But in the north it puts on a thicker coat. 

 It is a good swimmer, and regularly crosses over the 

 strait to Singapore ; it swims the Amur in northern 

 Asia, and there are thus but few obstacles to its roam- 

 ing. It is strong above all carnivorous beasts of the 

 field. A big tiger, it is alleged, can seize a bullock and 

 chuck him ten or fifteen yards as can a terrier a rat. 

 But it is only proper to observe that this is ridiculed 

 by Sir Samuel Baker. It growls "like a waggon going 

 fast over a wooden bridge," and has also a somewhat 

 plaintive cry, a kind of querulous mew, generally to 

 be heard in the lion house at the Zoo. The tiger in 

 India almost takes the place of the wolf in this country. 

 Just as we have Wolverton, Wolfslee, and other names 

 associated with the name of the canine carnivore, so in 

 India are analogous equivalents of tiger town, and so 

 forth, commemorating the huge Asiatic feline. More- 

 over, in this country there were werewolves, men who 

 had changed into wolves ; in India the tiger has given 

 rise to exactly the same kind of legend. 



THE PUMA 



Like the lion, the eyra, a lean somewhat mongoose- 

 like cat, and the caracal, the puma is what is called 

 " self-coloured " : that is, it is of uniform colour more 

 or less throughout. It is tawny, tending to brown or 

 grey at the two extremes, and whiter below. Its 

 young, however, are as spotted as any pard, and would 

 not be thought to be of puma parentage by any one 

 who was ignorant of the fact and shown the skins. 

 This would appear to argue that the puma, desert 

 coloured though it is at the present day, has descended 



