166 



THE CAT TRIBE. 



courage and savagery. The ancients did not 

 become acquainted with him till late, not till 

 the time of Augustus ; and it is probable that 

 if he had been known earlier he would have 

 received the place of the lion in fable. 



The body of this powerful beast of prey 

 exhibits much more pleasing proportions than 

 that of the lion. The breast is beautifully 

 proportioned to the hinder part of the trunk. 

 The rather smooth hair lying close to the 

 body allows the undulating lines of the head, 

 trunk, and limbs to be clearly seen. Old 

 males have been killed with bodies measuring 

 six and a half feet from the tip of the snout 

 to the root of the tail, while the tail was just 

 half that length. The head is rounded, with 

 a somewhat conically arched profile. The 

 face is bordered by nearly white whiskers, 

 which are pretty long, bushy, and stiff, and 

 give the old male a very dignified appear- 

 ance. The pupils are round, the paws 

 enormously broad, the legs very powerful 

 and not very long. 



The tiger is a large striped cat. The 

 ground colour of his fur is a yellowish-white, 

 sometimes passing into reddish-yellow, darker 

 on the back than on the under side, where it 

 is almost a pure white; and this ground- 

 colour is variegated with dark-brown or even 

 black transverse stripes which stand out in 

 strong contrast. The tigers oi the north 

 have a paler coat, and in winter even have a 

 pretty thick wool between the longer hairs. 



The territory occupied by the tiger is 

 tolerably extensive. From the large Sunda 

 Islands to the banks of the Amur, and from 

 China to Caucasia, he is met with everywhere 

 in Asia; but he manifestly prefers the low 

 districts of the torrid zone, the dense bam- 

 boo thickets, the jungle, and similar places, 

 where he can easily find secure retreats, 

 from which he can dash down with a mighty 

 spring upon his victim, as shown in the illus- 

 tration. He adapts himself to very different 

 conditions of life. He makes himself at 

 home on the bare steppes and upon stony 



plateaux, in primeval forests as well as on 

 the hills clad with a dense foliage of bushes, 

 in thickets as well as on the cold and dreary 

 flats of Eastern Siberia, where in winter he 

 digs out his lair in the thick snow. No im- 

 pediment stops him in his migrations in search 

 of rich hunting-grounds. Notwithstanding 

 his weight he climbs on low trees, and swims 

 not only across rivers but even across arms 

 of the sea, as, for example, across the channel 

 which separates Singapore from the main- 

 land. 



Although the tiger prefers large animals 

 for booty, it does not despise the small ones. 

 It is said to be just as fond of the various 

 species of pheasants and peacocks as of the 

 buffaloes, stags, and wild boars which inhabit 

 the forests of India. Of all animals it shows 

 least fear of man. The lion shuns man 

 when armed with a firearm; the tiger seeks 

 him out. It may justly be said that no animal 

 levies so serious tithes on the natives as the 

 tiger does. In spite of the incessant hunting 

 parties of the English, thousands of human 

 beings are killed by these ravagers every 

 year in India. In all the village districts so- 

 called 'man-eaters' are known, that is, old 

 tigers which seek no other kind of game, and 

 are wily enough to escape all pursuit. 

 Among the animals of these districts it is 

 only the elephant, the rhinoceros, and the 

 Indian black bear (Urstis labiatus), often also 

 the buffalo, which can make a successful stand 

 against this assailant. There are even well- 

 established cases in which buffaloes have got 

 rid of a tiger that had leaped on their neck 

 by pressing their enemy violently against a 

 tree so that he fell off, and have afterwards 

 put him to death by repeated thrusts with 

 their horns. But such battles are rare. In 

 most cases the animal attacked breaks down 

 under the first shock of the heavy tiger, 

 which dashes down upon the back of its 

 neck with an enormous bound, lacerates its 

 loins with its claws, and tears open its throat 

 with its teeth. 



