HISTORY OF THE TIGER. 59 



with them ; but the great nursing places of the tiger, their 

 cradle, as Temminck terms it, is the peninsula of Hindostan ; 

 the vast jungles of this rich country linkig the courses of her 

 majestic rivers, harbors thousands of these animals, for 

 water is always as indispensable for their nourishment as 

 food. The larger islands are therefore also favorite resorts ; 

 and many lives have been sacrificed in attempting to free 

 this district from these powerful pests. Cozimbar and Sau- 

 gur islands are well known in the annals of tiger destruction, 

 and many have been the fatal encounters 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, Aristotle merely men- 

 tioning it as an animal he had heard of. Pliny tells us that 

 the first tiger known among the Romans, was a tame one 

 belonging to Augustus. Claudius, however, afterwards ex- 

 hibited four at a time,' and it has been conjectured that the 

 beautiful Mosaic picture of four tigers, discovered some 

 years ago in Rome, near the arch of Gallicius, was execu- 

 ted at that period in commemoration of so striking and 

 unprecedented a display. 



The tiger, in a country where he can be well supplied 

 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 evening 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 impenetrable 

 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. 



Where civilization has commenced, the tiger has learned 



