CAT. 



7-29 



season, but produce young indiscriminately, summer 

 or whiter, spring or autumn. In the case of the horse 

 it does not appear that difference of treatment very 

 much changes the period of breeding, though in pro- 

 portion as the climate is warmer, and they are better 

 red, they upon the whole breed earlier. Cattle and 

 sheep, especially the former, are much more obedient 

 to circumstances. The natural period for sheep to 

 bring forth is in the spring, earlier than that of cattle, 

 but by management the time may be carried forward 

 into the winter ; and thus we have house lurnb fit for 

 the table, a month or two before the time ewes, left 

 exposed to the weather, drop their young. In the 

 case of cattle again, this period may, by management, 

 be extended over the greater part of the year, so that 

 if there is a demand and a price for it, veal may be 

 had for the market at all seasons. It is natural to 

 suppose, however, that these young animals, bred 

 out of the natural times, are neither so racy nor so 

 wholesome as those which are produced at the natural 

 period, just in the same manner that animals of which 

 the fattening is forced by indolence and cramming, 

 are never so wholesome and so savoury as those which 

 have the free range of good pasture. 



In those circumstances, simple as they may appear, 

 there is a good deal to be learnt respecting the geo- 

 graphy of the animals ; and this, when we can get 

 any satisfactory clue to it, is always a very important 

 matter, as affording more insight into the general 

 history and economy of nature than we can obtain 

 bv any other means. It will readily be understood and 

 admitted, that no domestication or artificial treatment 

 can wholly change the nature of any animal any more 

 than it can change the organisation ; though it may 

 so far obscure the original character, as that it may 

 escape thp notice of ordinary observers. 



In devoting one short paragraph to this important 

 point, which we can better do here, where it has 

 arisen naturally, than if we had written a separate 

 article on the subject, the technical name of which 

 might have prevented those for whose benefit it is 

 intended from reading it ; in devoting a single para- 

 graph to this point, we shall put carnivorous animals 

 altogether out of the question. When we do so, we 

 find that the others point very plainly, if not to their 

 original latitudes, at least to the kind of surface upon 

 which we might expect to find them in the wild state. 

 The horse, as the least obedient to cultivation in this 

 respect, evidently points out a native locality in those 

 dry plains in the middle latitudes, which have the 

 alternate seasons of fertility and barrenness strongly 

 marked ; and these are exactly the places in which 

 analogous races of animals are still to be met with in 

 the wild state the plains of central Asia for instance, 

 northward of the line of the Hindoo Kosh. The 

 sheep, which are a little less seasonal, or are more 

 easily diverted from the proper season by artificial 

 means, point out a native locality where the succes- 

 sion of the seasons is less uniform ; and there is some 

 reason to believe that the parent stock of our domestic 

 breeds is the moufflon of the mountainous parts of 

 the south of Europe, and especially of the islands in 

 the Mediterranean. As in so far corroborative of 

 this fact, it has recently been ascertained, by experi- 

 ment in Malta, that the moufflon will breed with 

 domestic sheep. The ox again, which in this respect 

 is the most obei ieot to art, points exactly to those 

 places where animals of the genus are still met with 

 abundantly in a wild state, the humid plains of the 



middle latitudes, where vegetation is nearly or a,to- 

 gether perennial. 



Tigers are, as we have said, more independent of 

 this seasonal influence than almost any others even 

 of the carnivorous animals. They not only inhabit the 

 warmest latitudes,, but they inhabit the most fertile 

 places of those latitudes ; the regions, in short, where 

 the vegetation is in continual growth, and where, in 

 consequence, those animals upon which tigers prey 

 find plenty of food at all times, and are in conse- 

 quence very numerous. It does not appear that the 

 tigress is so productive at a single litter as the lioness, 

 but it is probable that she breeds oftener. Four or 

 five is the usual number; and when they are produced 

 they bear a very considerable resemblance to young 

 lions, though it is probable they come rather sooner 

 to maturity, and are perhaps not quite so long lived. 

 The life of animals is very generally, though not 

 invariably, in the inverse ratio of their activity; and, 

 upon the whole, the tiger is a much more active 

 animal than the lion. Savage as those animals are 

 when they are hungry, or when alarmed or irritated, 

 tftere is no animal more attached to her young than 

 the female tiger. The determination with which she 

 will fight in their defence, and the dangers which she 

 will encounter to prevent them from being taken, or 

 to recover them after they are taken, are truly won- 

 derful. On such occasions she will enter a city, or 

 encounter a whole army ; and w hen she does not 

 succeed in recovering her offspring, her cries are 

 the most piercing, and also the most piteous that can 

 well be imagined. 



The cry of the tiger, even upon ordinary occasion?, 

 is much more appalling and even horrid than the lion. 

 There is grandeur in the deep and full tones of the 

 latter animal ; but there is neither majesty nor music 

 in the voice of the tiger. It begins with deep, slow, 

 i.nd melancholy grow lings ; these gradually become 

 more acute and hurried, till they terminate in a 

 piercing cry, of which no description can be given, 

 and this cry finishes with a convulsive jarring, as if 

 the rocks around were shaking to pieces. This voice 

 is very loud, and when it is uttered in the forests, it 

 is so repeated in echoes, that the roaring of one tiger 

 is heard as though the place were surrounded by 

 numbers of them. These cries are generally uttered 

 during the night ; and, blended as they are with the 

 yelpings of jackalls and hyaenas, and the alarmed 

 cries of all those beasts and birds which are terrified 

 at the sound, they render night in the tropical forests 

 any thing but a season of repose. Nor fares it much 

 otherwise in the curly part of the morning ; for no 

 sooner have the beasts of prey become silent, than 

 the larger qnadrumana begin their howling; and 

 when they cease, the chatter of the monkeys, and the 

 screaming of the tree birds, keeps the forest alive all 

 the remainder of the day. 



The countries around the Bay of Bengal, with the 

 larger islands of the Malay peninsula, are the prin- 

 cipal habitations of these formidable animals ; and 

 they appear to be large in size and powerful in action, 

 in proportion as the ground which they inhabit is 

 fertile. 



There is, perhaps, no river in the world which has 

 made so extensive deposits in the lower parts of its 

 valley, or where the portions near the sea are so 

 closely tangled with vegetation, or so thickly stocked 

 with animals, as the Ganges. The Sunderbund?, or 

 islands formed between the different mouths of the 



