SO NATURALIST'S CABINET. 



General description. 



THE TIGER. 



THIS animal may be justly ranked among 

 the most beautiful of quadrupeds, bis colour being 

 a fine orange yellow, wbite on the throat and 

 belly, and elegantly marked throughout with 

 long transverse bands or stripes. He also holds 

 the second place in the class of carnivorous ani- 

 mals; but it has been justly observed that, while 

 he possesses all the bad qualities of the lion, he 

 seems entirely destitute of his good ones. To 

 pride, strength, and intrepidity, the lion joins 

 magnanimit}-, and some times clemency ; while 

 the tiger is fierce without provocation, and cruel 

 without necessity. Alike regardless of man and 

 all his hostile weapons, he is the scourge of every 

 country which he inhabits: wild as well as tame 

 animals are indiscriminately sacrificed to his insa- 

 tiate voracity ; he even attacks the young ele- 

 phant and rhinoceros, and has sometimes en- 

 gaged the lion himself with such fury and perse- 

 verance, that both animals have perished in the 

 dreadful contest. 



The tiger commits dreadful ravages among the 

 flocks and herds in the countries where he re- 

 sides ; and when undisturbed, he tears open the 

 body of his victim, thrusts his head into the 

 wound, and drinks large draughts of the blood, 

 before he begins to prey on the carcase. 



The tiger's method of taking his prey is by 



