NATURAL HISTORY 769 



is nowhere found in a wild state, but is probably In color they are brownish-black. The skin is 



a native of tropical Asia. It grows to the height extremely thick and hairy, and the tail short, 



of seven or eight feet or more, and has broad They inhabit dense forests, are vegetarians in 



ribbed leaves, and smooth shining stems. It diet, and nocturnal in their habits. About six 



is now cultivated in all the warm parts of the species are known, and of these only one is an 



ulobe, such as the West Indies, Brazil, Java, inhabitant of the Old World, occurring in the 



Louisiana, etc., but varies in growth according Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, and Borneo. The 



to -the situation, the season, or the weather, remaining species are South American. 



The sugar-cane flowers only after the lapse of an Tiger. The largest and most dangerous of 



entire year, and a plantation lasts from six to ten the Felidse; exceeding the lion slightly in size, 



years. The juice of the cane is very palatable and far surpassing him in destructiveness. It 



and nutritive. is purely Asiatic in its habitat, but is not by any 



Swallow, any one of the numerous passerine means confined to the hot plains of India, though 



birds. In the I'nited States the best known there it reaches its highest development, both 



species are the bam swallow ; the cliff, eaves, or of size and coloration. According to Fayrer, 



cnimney swallow; the white bellied or tree swal- the full-grown male Indian tiger is from nine to 



low, and the bank swallow. The species usually twelve, and the tigress from eight to ten feet 



described by naturalists as the type of the family from the nose to the tip of the tail, and from 



i< Hirundo rustica, a well-known European , thirty-six to forty-two inches high at the shoul- 



visitor. whose arrival from Africa (usually about I der. The ground color of the slcin is rufous or 



the middle of April) is eagerly looked for as a j tawny yellow, shaded with white on the ventral 



sign of approaching summer. Swallows usually surface. This is varied with vertical black 



arrive in pairs a male and a female though stripes or elongated ovals and brindlings. < )n 



ral pairs often form a small flight; but if a the face and posterior surface of the ears the 



single bird is seen to arrive, there is a strong white markings are peculiarly well developed, 



presumption that it has lost its mate. They I The depth of the ground color and the intensity 



return with unfailing regularity to their old of the black markings vary, according to the age 



haunts, and in May commence building their and condition of the animal. In old tigers the 



which are in shape somewhat like a flat- ground becomes more tawny, of a lighter shade, 



tened cup, divided perpendicularly; they are and. the black markings better defined. The 



made of clav, mud, and straw, lined with horse- ground coloring is more dusky in young animals, 



hair or feat'hers, and the eggs, which are from Though possessed of immense strength and 



four to six in number, are white, spotted with ferocity, the tiger rarely attacks armed men, un- 



a purply-red. less provoked, though often carrying off women 



Swan, a genus of swimming birds, distin- and children. When pressed by hunger or en- 



guished as a group by the bill being of equal feebled by age and incapable of dealing with 



length with the head, and broad throughout its larger prey, like buffaloes, the tiger prowls around 



length; by the cere being soft; by the front toes villages, and, having once tasted human flesh, be- 



bi-ing strongly webbed, whilst the hinder toe is comes a confirmed man eater. In a government 



not webbed, and has no lobe or underskin. The report it is stated that "one tigress caused the 



'.'S which inhabit or visit Britain are the desertion of thirteen villages, and 250 square 



mute or tame swan, the whooper, whistling, or miles of country were thrown out of cultiva- 



wild swan, and Bewick's swan. The mute or tion." The jaguar is sometimes called the 



tame swan, so named from having little or no American tiger. 



voice, is the only species which is permanently Thrush. A genus of birds having a bill of 



re-id< -nt in Britain. The nest is constructed of moderate size, straight, the upper mandible 



reeds and grasses, and is generally situated near convex, its point compressed, notched, and 



the edge of the water on some Met. The young slightly curved downward, the gaj>e furni 



hen hatched are of a light bluish- with a few hairs; the nostrils near the base of 



i he food consists of vegetable mat- the bill oval, partly closed by a naked membrane ; 



-mailer fishes, worms, etc., and fish-spawn, the first feather of the wing very short, the 



The wild swan and Bewick's swan pass the win- third and fourth longest; the tarsus longer than 



in Great Britain, flying northward in the the middle toe, the outer toe connected with 



spring. The first is a native of Ireland, eastern the middle toe at the base. The common spe- 



Kapland, and northern Ku ia ; the -eei.nd has cies are the blackbird, fieldfare, n-duing. ou/el. 



>ome farther east. They nave their repp- s,,ng thrush, and mis.se! thrush. Tne song 



sentatives in North America in the trumpeter thrush or throstle, the mavis of the Scotch, 



;. South America produce- one very dis- is smaller than the blackbird, its \\hole length 



tinct species, the beautiful black-necked swan, being not <piite nine inches. Its plumage ia 



i of Australia, like tlie white swan, brown, of \.trious finely mingled shades; the 



is frequently kept as an ornament in parks or throat, sides of the neck, breast, and flanks 



pleasure ground-. vellouish. spotted \\ith dark brown, the belly 



Tapir. The name given to the hoofed quad- nearly white, with a few spot* of dark brown; 



mpeds forming the family 7V///riW^. They are a dark brown streak, with a lighter bi 



(KMsess a short movable streak over it, pawing from the bill to the 



trunk, by menn- <>t \\lueh they convey food to The lati. i in all part* : but. 



the mouth. The fore-feet have four toes e rts some of the northern parts m \\mter, 



the little toe being smaller than the rest and bring t hus partially a bird of passage. 



not touching the ground; an. 1 the hind feet I, < TOJH|. The popular name of any s, , 



three toes each ; all the toes are encased in hoof A. of the family llnfonida-. \\lnch is almost uni- 



