ORDER CARNIVORA: CARNIVORES 307 



Persia. Gmelin (1774, vol. 3, pp. 485-486) reports the animal 

 as pretty common in the forested mountains of Mazanderan. It 

 seldom makes unprovoked attacks on man. The skin is highly 

 prized, and is used for a horse-covering. 



Blanford writes (1876, p. 34): "The tiger is only found in 

 Persia in the Caspian provinces, Mazandaran, and Ghilan, lying to 

 the north of the Elburz mountains .... These provinces, unlike 

 the plateau of Persia, are covered with dense forest, and in them 

 the tiger ranges up to an elevation of at least 5000 or 6000 feet." 



To this St. John adds (in Blanford, 1876, p. 34) : "Tigers are 

 very numerous in the Caspian provinces of Persia, and in the 

 Caucasus as far as the mouth of the Araxes. . . . Cubs are often 

 captured in Mazandaran and brought to Tehran. I have seen speci- 

 mens in the Bagh-i-Washi quite equal in size to Bengal tigers." 



In Mazanderan, sometime prior to 1911, "Col. Kennion only came 

 across two examples of this tiger; and there is reason to fear that 

 the race is on the wane" (Pocock, 1929, p. 522). "Considering the 

 abundance of game and the fewness of the tigers' foes, it is quite a 

 problem why the latter are not more numerous in these parts" 

 (Kennion, 1911, p. 246). 



The British Museum has a specimen obtained at Astrabad in 1882 

 or earlier. In Astrabad and the adjacent portion of Turkestan the 

 Tiger occurs in various localities, including the Gurgan, Atrek, Sum- 

 bar, and Chandir Rivers (Ognev, 1935, pp. 289-290). 



Afghanistan. In this country, as in Persia, the species appears 

 to be restricted to the northern part. "The tigers of the Perso- 

 Turkestan district . . . were doubtless excluded from India by the 

 Hindu Koosh and the desert areas of Persia and Baluchistan" 

 (Pocock, 1929, p. 509). 



"Ferrier in his 'Caravan journeys' speaks of tigers in the jungles 

 of the Hari Rud north-west of Herat" (St. John, in Blanford, 1876, 

 p. 34). 



The Afghan Delimitation Commission (1884-85) obtained a speci- 

 men from Karaol-khana on the Murgab close to the Turkestan 

 boundary. Tracks were reported in the valley of the Hari Rud, 

 and were also found at the Chashma-sabz Pass, at an elevation 

 of 5,000 feet, in the Paropamisus Range. "During summer . . . 

 they wander over the great rolling plains of the Badghis [on the 

 north side of the Paropamisus Range], ascending to higher altitudes 

 with the increase of heat, depending for their food on Pig, Oorial, 

 and even Ibex. In winter they resort to the . . . thickets of the 

 larger streams and main rivers, to which their usual food, the Pig, 

 also retires. The Turkomans say that an old and toothless Tiger is 

 especially destructive to sheep." (Aitchison, 1889, p. 56.) 



