ANIMALS Or THE 



slaughter, the country would be uninhabitable 

 where it resides. But luckily the species is ex- 

 tremely scarce ; and has been so since the ear- 

 liest 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 was considered 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 incredible 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 :t but 

 its being a native only of the East Indies, and 

 that particularly of the 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 ani- 

 mals, and much less diffused than that of the lion. 

 As to the number of its young, we have no cer- 

 tain 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 one of her cubs, with which she 

 immediately returns to her den, and again pur- 

 sues him; he then drops another, and by the 

 time she has returned with that, he generally 



( * Plin. Hist. Nat. lib. viii. c. 1 7. 

 f Tigris -vivus cspi adhtic non potuit. Var. de Ling. Lat. 



