58 



HISTORY OF THE TIGER. 



places he is the scourge of the country, and neither man 

 nor beast can with safety inhabit the districts which he has 

 selected for his own. His general form and appearance is 

 so well known, that a very short description will suffice, 

 assisted by the accompanying illustration wherein he is 

 represented in a low and crouching attitude in order to gain 

 the distance at which he shall take a spring ; and this is 

 perhaps the best for displaying both the likeness and the 

 symmetry of the animal. He possesses no trace of the 

 shaggy mane which adds so much to the bold and majes- 

 tic-looking front of the lion ; and his countenance, scowling 

 under different passions, conveys a greater idea of treach- 

 ery and wanton cruelty, than really belongs to the animal. 

 In shape, he is more lengthened and slender than the lion, 

 the head rounder, and the whole form more cat-like ; and 

 all his motions are performed with the greatest grace and 

 apparent ease. The hair is thick, fine, arid shining ; the 

 color a bright, tawney yellow, fading into pure white on 

 the under parts, and being beautifully marked with dark 

 bands and brindled spots, exhibiting a distribution of color 

 altogether beautiful and pleasing. These marks vary in 

 number and intensity of shade in the females; and the very 

 young animals are of a pale grey color, with obscure dus- 

 ky transverse bands. A pale whitish-colored variety of the 

 tiger is sometimes met with where the stripes are very 

 opaque, and only seen in particular lights." 



Griffith has given a beautiful representation of this 

 variety from a specimen in Exeter Change: "Thetigei 

 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 countries which separate China from 

 Siberia, and as far as the banks of the Obi, and in the greater 

 number of the larger East India islands, such as Java and 

 Sumatra. The peninsula of Malacca is also said to abound 



