378 THE CARNIVORES 



tint, with the usual stripes faintly visible in certain parts, was exhibited at the old 

 menagerie at Exeter Change about the year 1820. A second example of a white 

 tiger was recently obtained at Puna, India, by Major D. Robinson, of the Lanca- 

 shire Fusiliers, and it appears to have been a male in the prime of life ; while 

 Colonel H. H. Godwin-Austen states that he has known of a third specimen. A 

 perfectly black tiger, according to Mr. C. T. Buckland, was found dead many years 

 ago near Chittagong, on the northeast frontier of India. 



With the exception of a ruff of longish hair round the neck, and throat of old 

 males, which represents the mane of the male lion, the hair on the head and body of 

 the Indian tiger is generally short and thick, but it is considerably more elongated 

 and shaggy in Siberian examples. There is, moreover, a certain amount of varia- 

 tion in the length of the hair of the Indian tiger according to the season of the 

 year. 



The tail of the tiger, in both sexes, tapers regularly from root to tip ; its total 

 length being about half that of the combined length of the head and body. 



When describing the lion, it has been mentioned how the skull of that animal 

 can be distinguished at a glance from that of a tiger. And it may be added that a 

 tiger's skull, according to Mr. Blanford, is, on the average, even wider and more 

 massive than that of the lion. Moreover, in correlation with the more curved pro- 

 file of the head of a tiger, as compared with that of a lion, the skull has its outline 

 more convex, while the inferior border of the lower jaw is also straighter. 



The tiger stands lower on the limbs than the lion, and is thus proportionately 

 longer in the body. In regard to the size attained by tigers there has been even 

 more exaggeration than in the case of the lion ; this being in great part due to the 

 measurements having been taken either from the skins after they had been removed 

 from the animal and pegged out on the ground to dry, or from tigers which had 

 been carried for several hours thrown across the backs of elephants, and thus con- 

 siderably stretched beyond their normal length. Mr. Blanford states that full-grown 

 male tigers measure from 5^ to 6^ feet from the tip of the nose to the root of the 

 tail ; the length of the tail being about 3 feet. In one example, whose total length 

 was 9 feet 6 inches, the length of the head and body was 6 feet 4 inches, and that of 

 the tail 3 feet 2 inches. Female tigers are generally about a foot shorter in the 

 length of the head and body than males. The height of a tiger at the shoulder 

 varies from about 3 feet to 3 feet 6 inches. 



The above dimensions are taken in a straight line, but the usual manner of 

 measuring a tiger adopted by sportsmen is to follow the curves of the body, when 

 the dimensions will, of course, be somewhat greater ; and it appears that all the 

 largest tigers on record have been measured in this manner. Full-grown tigers thus 

 measured vary from 9 to 10 feet in length ; and tigresses from 8 to 9 feet. Un- 

 usually fine specimens will, however, reach or even slightly exceed, a length of 

 1 2 feet; 12 feet 2 inches being apparently the maximum dimensions ascertained 

 with any approach to accuracy. It is, however, by no means invariably the 

 case that tigresses reach the minimum length mentioned above, Mr. Blanford 

 stating that he killed one apparently adult example that was only 7^ feet long, 

 while a second measured but 7 feet 8 inches. 



