32 ZOOLOGY or inbia. 



tame and docile, that for twelve months after their arrival 

 thev were suffered to walk at large in an open yard, where 

 thev were played with and caressed by all and sundry, liut 

 no sooner had the female given birth to her first litter of 

 cubs, than a total change was effected in her disposition. 

 Absorbed by one idea, the support and preservation of her 

 young, she no longer suffered the slightest famdianty, even 

 on the part of her accustomed keepers, and, apparently 

 haunted by the fear that every person who approached her 

 den was about to deprive her of her cherished offspring, she 

 gave full scope to the violence of her passion, and exhibited 

 a beautiful but appalling picture of maternal tenderness and 

 the most savage ferocity. The cubs, which were three in 

 number, two males and a female, were whelped on the 20th 

 October, 1827, the day of the battle of Navarino ; and it 

 was discovered by the curious in such coincidences, that 

 they were the only lions born in the Tower since the year 

 (1794) of the great naval victory gained by Lord Howe over 

 the French fleet. 



Inferior to the lion in the majesty of his deportment, but 

 nearly equal in strength, and perhaps excelling him in ac- 

 tivity, the tiger {Felis tigns), though his nature and aspect 

 are known to all, forms too prominent a feature in the 

 zoology of Hindostan not to require from us a brief record. 

 This savage and very powerful animal has a more slender 

 body and a rounder head than his great congener. His mo- 

 tions are full of graceful ease, and the bright tawny-yellow 

 of the prevailing portions of his coat, contrasted with the 

 numerous sloping lines of black, and the pure white ol the 

 under portions of his body, constitute one of the most perfect 

 pictures of savage beauty presented by the brute creation. 

 The geographical distribution of the tiger is considerably 

 more extended from north to south than that of the lion, as 

 it not only advances far into those desert countries which 

 separate China from Siberia, but is also found between the 

 Irtysch and the Ischim, and even, though rarely, as far as 

 the banks of the Obi. On the other hand, it is more re- 

 stricted in a longitudinal direction, as it appears rarely to 

 pass to the westward of a line drawn from about the mouths 

 of the Indus in a northerly direction to the shores of the 

 Caspian Sea. The tiger was therefore much less familiarly 

 known to ancient writers than the lion, and even among the 



