140 THE TIGER. 



an animal high in health, the hair is thick, fine, and 

 shining, the colour bright tawny yellow, shaded into 

 pure white on the under parts, and being beautifully 

 marked with dark bands and brindlings, exhibits a 

 distribution of colour altogether beautiful and pleas- 

 ing. These markings vary in number and intensity 

 of shade in the young and females, and the very 

 young animals are of a pale grey colour, with ob- 

 scure dusky transverse bands. A pale whitish-co- 

 loured variety of the tiger is sometimes met with, 

 with the stripes very opaque, and only seen in par- 

 ticular lights. Griffith has given a beautiful repre- 

 sentation of this variety from a specimen in Exeter 

 Change. 



The tiger is exclusively confined to the Asiatic 

 continent, and though its range from north to south 

 is very extensive, that in the opposite directions is 

 rather circumscribed. It is found in the desert coun- 

 tries which separate China from Siberia, and as far 

 as the banks of the Obi ; and in the greater number 

 of the larger East Indian islands, such as Java and 

 Sumatra. The peninsula of Malacca is also said to 

 abound with them ; but the great nursing places of 

 the tiger, their cradle, as Temminck terms it, is the 

 peninsula of Hindostan ; the vast jungles of this rich 

 country lining the courses of her majestic rivers, 

 harbour thousands of these animals, for water is al- 

 most as indispensable for their nourishment as food. 

 The larger islands are therefore also favourite re- 

 sorts, and many lives have been sacrificed in at- 



