56 VARIETIES OF THE TIGER AND LEOPARD. 



but I should attribute this to the effect of age. 

 Would it not be probable that this long-haired tiger 

 might have a near affinity to the formidable felines 

 whose fossil remains are found in the European 

 bone-caves, and which, doubtless, at one time in- 

 habited this island ? Atkinson, in his interesting 

 Travels in Siberia and on the Upper and Lower 

 Amoor, frequently mentions this species, and states 

 that he has seen several long-haired individuals in 

 the museum of Barnaoul, which were shot in the 

 immediate vicinity. One of these tigers was, 

 he states, an unusually fine and powerful speci- 

 men, two or three men being destroyed by the 

 ferocious beast before it was killed. This variety 

 of tiger seems to endure cold with perfect im- 

 punity, the thick and warm coating of fur se- 

 curing it from the effects of the intensely severe 

 Siberian winter. 



The Indian tigers in the Zoological Gardens as- 

 sume a denser covering of fur about the end of 

 autumn when the close and short summer coat is 

 shed. It will be an interesting thing to ascertain 

 whether the fur becomes longer or thicker at all 

 during the rainy season in India, for though the 

 tiger has not the same dislike to water so strongly 

 implanted in the nature of the domestic cat, yet 

 the sudden transition from the ordinary drought 

 and aridity to the damp and steamy atmosphere 



