PROBABLE AGE ATTAINED BY TIGERS. 273 



Jerdon. My own experience can only produce a tiger of 9 feet 6 inches, 

 and a tigress of 8 feet 4 inches, as my largest. 



It is not to be denied that tigers exceeding 10, 11, and even 12 feet 

 in length are sometimes spoken of and have even been described. But it 

 has invariably happened, in my experience, that whenever the narrator of 

 such stories has been brought to book, he has been unable to appeal to any 

 authority more satisfactory than his own memory, or the memory of liis 

 friends. Now, on such a point the memory is by no means an infallible 

 guide. When a man has assured me that the length of a tiger — a length 

 greatly in excess of the ordinary size — is indelibly impressed upon his 

 memory, I have never failed to express my regret that it was not, at the 

 time, indelibly impressed upon his note-book. A sportsman cannot be 

 too careful in this particular. Perfect exactness in his description of the 

 slaughtered animal is an aim he should always keep in view. For this pur- 

 pose the memory is not a safe witness. It may be laid down as an axiom 

 that the note-book carried by the sportsman is the only safe evidence ; and 

 that all other — whatever be its nature — must be disregarded. 



I have only weighed one tiger, a very bulky, well-fed male. He weighed, 

 by two different scales, 349|- lb., or 25 stone all but half a pound. I 

 should have imagined this was about the extreme weight of any tiger, but 

 I have seen heavier recorded. 



It is difficult to ascertain the probable age to which tigers live. A large 

 male that I shot, and which was said to have been perfectly well known 

 about Morlay for twenty years, showed no signs of great age : his teeth 

 were good, and he seemed in the prime of vigour and strength ; his coat 

 was, however, getting liglit-coloured. As cats not unfrequently live to 

 upwards of twenty years, the tiger's span of life is probably longer than 

 is usually supposed. A tiger has lived in the Eegent's Park Zoological 

 Society's gardens for ten years, but this is of course not a satisfactory test. 

 The natives have an idea that the age of tigers and panthers can be told by 

 the number of lobes of the liver, being one lobe for each year of age; but this 

 theory is not, I believe, accepted by anatomists. It is true, however, and is a 

 peculiar fact, that the number of lobes does vary considerably in different 

 animals, and is greatest where other indications of age exist. I have shot 

 tigers and panthers with from nine to fifteen lobes. If this has nothing to 

 do with their age, it would at least be interesting if anatomists could give 

 some reason to account for it. 



A strange example of a tiger's departing from the usual food of the 

 FelidcB, is that of a large male near Poonjoor some years ago, that is said to 

 have killed and eaten several bears. The account of his doings in the Poon- 



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