son 



ANIMALS OF 



first object they beheld was the tiger, who 

 had thrown the buffalo over its shoulder, as 

 a fox does a goose, and was carrying it away, 

 with the feet upwards, towards its den; how- 

 ever, as soon as it saw the men, it let fall its 

 prey, and instantly fled to the woods : but 

 it had previously killed the buffalo, and suck- 

 ed its blood ; and, no doubt, the people were 

 very well satisfied with its retreat. It may be 

 observed, that some East Indian buffaloes 

 weigh above a thousand pounds, which is 

 twice as heavy as the ordinary run of our 

 black cattle ; so that from hence we may form 

 a conception of the enormous strength of this 

 rapacious animal, that could thus run off with 

 a weight at least twice as great as that of it- 

 self. 



" Were this animal as common as the pan- 

 ther, or even as the lion himself, thus furnish- 

 ed as it is with the power to destroy, and the 

 appetite for slaughter, the country would be 

 uninhabitable where it resides. But luckily 

 the species is extremely scarce ; and has been 

 so since the earliest accounts we have had of 

 the tiger. About the times of Augustus, we 

 are assured by Pliny, that when panthers 

 were brought to Rome by hundreds, a single 

 tiger wasconsidered as an extraordinary sight ; 

 and he tells us, that the emperor Claudius 

 was able to procure four only ; which shows 

 how difficultly they were procured. The in- 

 credible fierceness of this animal may be, in 

 some measure, the cause of the scarcity which 

 was then at Rome, since it was the opinion of 

 Varro, that the tiger was never taken alive:* 

 tut its being a native only of the East Indies, 

 and that particularly of (he warmer regions, 

 it is not to be wondered that the species should 

 be so few." 



We may, therefore, consider the species of 

 the true streaked tiger, as one of the scarcest 

 of animals, and much less diffused than that 

 of the lion. As to the number of its young, 

 we have no certain accounts; however, it is 

 said, that it brings forth four or five at a time. 

 Although furious at all times, the female, upon 

 this occasion, exceeds her usual rapacity; and, 

 if her young are taken from her, she pursues 

 the spoiler with incredible rage; he, to save 

 a part, is contented to lose a part, and drops 



Tigiisvivuscapiadhucnonpotuit. Var de ling. Lat. 



one of her cubs, with which she immediately 

 returns to her den, and again pursues him ; 

 he then drops another, and by the time she 

 has returned with that, he generally escapes 

 with the remainder. If she loses her young 

 entirely, she then becomes desperate, boldly 

 approaches even the towns themselves, and 

 commits incredible slaughter. The tiger ex- 

 presses its resentment in the same manner 

 with the lion ; it moves the muscles and skin 

 of its face, shows its teeth, and shrieks in the 

 most frightful manner. Its note is very diffe- 

 rent from that of the lion ; being rather a 

 scream than a roar : and the ancients expres- 

 sed it very well, when they said that, tigridos 

 indomitce rancant rugiuntque leo?ies. 



The skin of these animals is much esteem- 

 ed all over the east, particularly in China ; 

 the Mandarines cover their seats of justice 

 in the public places with it, and convert it 

 into coverings for cushions in winter. In Eu- 

 rope, these skins, though but seldom to be 

 met with, are of no great value; those of the 

 panther and the leopard being held in much 

 greater estimation. This is all the little be- 

 nefit we derive from this dreadful animal, of 

 which so many falsehoods have been report- 

 ed ; as, that its sweat was poisonous, and the 

 hair of its whiskers more dangerous than an 

 envenomed arrow. But the real mischiefs 

 which the tiger occasions while living are 

 sufficient, without giving imaginary ones to the 

 parts of its body when dead. In fact, the In- 

 dians sometimes eat its flesh, and find it nei- 

 ther disagreeable nor unwholesome. 



There is an animal of America, which is 

 usually called the red tiger, but Mr. Buffbn 

 calls it the cougar, which, no doubt, is very 

 different from the tiger of the east. Some, 

 however, have thought proper to rank both 

 together, and I will take leave to follow their 

 example, merely because the cougar is more 

 like a tiger in every thing, except the colour, 

 than any other animal I know, having the head, 

 the body, and the neck, shaped very much in 

 the same manner. Of these slight differences, 

 words would give but a very faint idea; it 

 will be, therefore, sufficient to observe, that 

 they are both equally slender, and are smaller 

 where the neck joins the head, than others of 

 the panther kind. There is' one at present 

 in the Tower; and it seemed to me, as well 



