THE TIGER. 141 



tempting to free this district from these powerful 

 pests. Cozimbar and Saugur islands are well known 

 in the annals of tiger destruction, and many has been 

 the fatal encounter on their luxuriant shores. 



The tiger was much less familiarly known to the 

 ancients, than either the lion or the spotted African 

 cats. Among the Greeks it was scarcely known at 

 all, Aristotle merely mentioning it as an animal he 

 had heard of. Pliny tells us that the first tiger 

 known among the Romans, was a tame one belong- 

 ing to Augustus. Claudius, however, afterwards 

 exhibited four at a time, and it has been conjectured 

 that the beautiful Mosaic picture of four tigers, dis- 

 covered some years ago in Rome, near the arch of 

 Gallicius, was executed at that period in commemo- 

 ration of so striking and unprecedented a display. * 



The tiger, in a country where he can be well sup- 

 plied with food, is a nocturnal animal, lying during 

 the day in some thick cover defended from the 

 scorching heat, and gorged with his last meal in 

 sleepy indolence. In such uncultivated districts 

 he watches at dawn and even by the side of some 

 track, where the various animals pass, or about the 

 edges of the jungle, and above all at the springs and 

 drinking-places of the rivers, which in the impene- 

 trable thickets have but one common access to friend 

 or foe. Hither animals both weak and powerful 

 crowd, forced by the scorching heats to seek coolness 

 and drink, and here the tiger is seldom baffled of his 

 prey 



* Cuv, Oss. Foss. 



