34 NATURAL HISTORY. 



as she is vicious. Most of the accidents that have befallen sportsmen and others who have encountered 

 these animals have been due to Tigresses. I have seen a Tigress, accompanied by her young, charge, 

 unprovoked, a line of Elephants, and inflict severe injuries before she was despatched. The only well- 

 authenticated case in which a sportsman was taken out of a houdah was one in which a Tigress, in 

 one bound, reached the sportsman, her hind feet resting on the Elephant's head, the fore feet on the rail 

 of the houdah. The occupant, who had mortally wounded her as she sprang, was seized, and, after a 

 short struggle, dragged or thrown to the ground. The Tigress then received another bullet, and died 

 where she*fell ; the sportsman, severely wounded, was carried into camp, and slowly recovered." 

 As to the size of adult animals, the same author has the following remarks : 

 " It is generally admitted that the Tiger attains the greatest size in India, and there can be no 



doubt that he is really the largest of the existing Felidce The size of the Tiger 



varies ; some individuals attain great bulk and weight, though they are shorter than others which 

 are of a slighter and more elongated form. The statements as to the length they attain are con- 

 flicting and often exaggerated ; errors are apt to arise from measurements taken from the skin after 

 it is stretched, when it may be ten or twelve inches longer than before removal from the body. The 

 Tiger should be measured from the nose along the spine to the tip of the tail as he lies dead on the spot 

 where he fell before the skin is removed. One that is ten feet by this measurement is large, and the 

 full-grown male does not often exceed this, though no doubt larger individuals (males) are occasionally 

 seen, and I have been informed by Indian sportsmen of reliability that they have seen and killed 

 Tigers over twelve feet in length. The full-grown male Indian Tiger, therefore, may be said to be 

 from nine to twelve feet, or twelve feet two inches, the Tigress from eight to ten, or perhaps, in very 

 rare instances, eleven feet in length, the height being from three to three and a half, or, very rarely, 

 four feet at the shoulder. But we must look with doubt on Buffon's statement that one had attained 

 a length of fifteen feet ; and with even greater hesitation can we accept the recorded statement that 

 Hyder Ally presented a Tiger to the Nawab of Arcot that measured eighteen feet." 



The Tiger is entirely confined to Asia, where its range is very wide, extending from the Caspian to the 

 Sea of Okhotsk, and from latitude 50 southwards. It has been found in the Elburz Mountains, Bokhara, 

 China, Malaysia, Sumatra, Borneo, Java, and Bali. It is known about Ceylon and from the great table- 

 land of Tibet. Its head-quarters are North India, where great numbers are killed annually. From what 

 has been said, it will be evident that the Tiger is by no means, as one is very apt to imagine, an alto- 

 gether tropical animal ; the Caucasus, the western limit of its range, is far from being a warm region, 

 and its eastern limit, the island of Saghalien, is as far north as Kamtchatka. It has been found also at a 

 height of 8,000 feet above sea-level. It is an interesting circumstance that the Tigers found amongst 

 the snows of Mantchuria and Corea have the " body covered with long softish hairs," and a shaggy ruff 

 round the neck. Thus, as is so constantly the case, a definite variety is produced solely by the action 

 of surrounding conditions. Certain Tigers find it advantageous to live farther north than the generality 

 of their kind, so as to have a freer field for their depredations than would be afforded to them by the 

 more southern districts, and, to suit themselves to the vigorous climate, acquire long warm fur, such as 

 would be quite out of place on the back of a denizen of the Bengal jungles. 



It is a somewhat remarkable circumstance, considering the nearness of Palestine to the Caucasus 

 and Elburz Mountains, that the Tiger is not once mentioned in the Bible. It was, however, well 

 known to the Greeks and Romans, and, like the Lion, was a regular performer at the amphitheatre. 

 The district called Hyrcania, a tract of land lying to the south-east of the Caspian Sea, seems to have 

 been the most noted spot for Tigers. In the "^Eneid," Dido, in her magnificent declamation against 

 the perfidy of ^neas, is made to say- - 



" Nee tibi Diva parens, genius nee Dardanus auctor, 



Perfide, sed duris genuit te cautibus horrens 



Caucasus, Hyrcatueque admorunt ubera tigres." 

 " (Perfidious monster ! boast thy birth no more ; 



No hero got thee, and no goddess bore : 



No ! thou wert brought by Scythian rocks to day, 



By Tigers nurs'd and savages of prey.) " 

 and Shakspere uses the same expression : 



" The rugged Pyrrhus, like the Hyrcanian beast." 



