180 AXECDOTES OF ANIMALS. 



next day. She then entered a thicket close by, where 

 she was allowed to remain unmolested. On the morning 

 of the following clay she had got about a mile farther 

 from the water side, and near to a Sepoy village. Here 

 she was surrounded by about a thousand natives, 

 when, although she was very lame, she sprang furiously 

 on several of them, and wounded one poor woman 

 so dreadfully as to occasion her death. A fortunate 

 shot, however, laid the animal prostrate. 



There is an account of a tame tiger which was 

 brought from China in the ' Pitt ' East Indiaman, * who 

 was so far domesticated as to admit of every kind of 

 familiarity from the people on board. He seemed to 

 be quite harmless and as playful as a kitten. He fre- 

 quently slept with the sailors in their hammocks, and 

 would suffer two or three of them to repose their heads 

 upon his back, as upon a pillow, while he lay stretched 

 upon the deck. In return for this, he would, however, 

 now and then steal their meat. Having one day carried 

 off a piece of beef from the carpenter, the man followed 

 the animal, took it out of his mouth, and beat him 

 severely for the theft, which punishment he suffered 

 with all the patience of a dog. He would frequently 

 run out upon the bowsprit, climb about like a cat, and 

 perform a number of tricks with astonishing agility. 

 There was a dog on board with whom he often played 

 in the most amusing manner. He was only a month or 

 six weeks old when he was taken on board, and arrived 

 in England before he had completed a year.' 



The tiger is not as fond of his children as the lion is, 

 and often abandons the female while she is rearing her 

 young. The tigress will destroy her offspring as the cat 

 does ; but the following is an instance of her affection, 



