4o4 THE TROPICAL AVORLD. 



for the approaching herd ; there he seeks his prey, or rather 

 multiplies his murders, for he often leaves tlie carcase of the 

 axis or the nylghau still writhing in the agony of death, to 

 tlirow himself upon new victims, whose bodies he rends with 

 his claws, and then plimges his head into the gaping wound to 

 absorb with deep and luxurious draughts the blood whose 

 fountains he has just laid open. 



Nothing can be more delightful than the aspect of a Javanese 

 savannah, to which clumps of noble trees, planted by Nature's 

 hand, impart a park-like character ; yet even during the da}^- 

 time, the traveller rarely ventures to cross these beautiful wilds 

 without being accompanied by a numerous retinue. The horses 

 frequently stand still, trembling all over, when their road leads 

 them along some denser patch of the jungle, rising like an 

 island from the grassy plain, for their acute scent informs them 

 that a tiger lies concealed in the thicket, but a few paces from 

 their path. 



It is a remarkable fact that the peacock and the tiger are so 

 frequently seen together. The voice of the bird is seldom 

 heard during the daytime, but as soon as the sliades of evening- 

 begin to veil the landscape, his loud and disagreeable screams 

 awaken the echoes, announcing, as the Javanese say, that the 

 tiger is setting forth on his murderous excursions. Then the 

 traveller carefully bolts the door of his hut, and the solitary 

 Javanese retreats to his palisadoed dw^elling, for the tyrant of 

 the wilderness is abroad. At night his dreadful roar is heard, 

 sometimes accompanied by the peacock's discordant voice. 

 Even in the villages, thinly scattered among the grass or 

 alang-wilds of Java, there is no security against his attacks, 

 in spite of the strong fences with which they are enclosed, and 

 the watch-fires carefully kept burning between these and the 

 huts. 



India, South China, Sumatra, and Java are the chief seats of 

 the tiger, who is unknown both in Ceylon and Borneo, while to 

 the north he ranges as far as Mandschuria and the Upper Obi, 

 and Jennisei {5b° — 6Q° N. lat.). A species of tiger identical 

 with that of Bengal is common in the neighbourhood of I^ake 

 Aral, near Sussac (45° N. lat.), and Tennent mentions that he 

 is found among the snows of Mount Ararat in Armenia. As 

 Hindostan is separated from these northern tiger haunts by the 



