3C6 FACT VERSUS FICTION. 



of the brute creation ; the Domitian, Caligula, or Nero of the jungles. 

 He was blood-thirsty, treacherous, cowardly, and hideous. His limbs 

 were too short, his head was too large, he was ill-proportioned ; in a 

 word, on the unfortunate beast he poured out all the vials of his 

 satiric wrath. 



"With this pi&ce de fantaisie it would be curious to contrast the 

 graver and more authentic description of the impartial Daubenton. 

 He asserted that the tiger was very little known to Europeans, and 

 that in France there existed but a single specimen, and that a very 

 badly prepared one, in the " Cabinet du Hoi." But we are now better 

 informed, and the tiger, perhaps, up to a certain point, is rehabilitated. 

 Let us take him first in his physical aspect. All travellers agree in 

 describing him as the handsomest of animals. He has not the grave 

 countenance, the majestic attitudes of the lion ; but he has all the 

 grace, all the suppleness, all the lively and undulatory movements of 

 the domestic cat. He does not stand so high upon his legs as the lion, 

 and he lacks that full flowing mane which invests the physiognomy of 

 the latter with a human and truly noble air ; but all the parts of his 

 head and body, despite of Buffon, are admirably proportioned. Not 

 quite so tall as the lion, and less robust in appearance, he is endowed 

 with a surprising vigour. He can carry off, while in full career, and 

 making the most rapid leaps, the heaviest prey a kid, for instance, 

 an antelope of full size, even a bull, it is said, and, necessarily, a man. 

 Finally, his skin, symmetrically striped, like a zebra's, with wavy 

 bands of brown and black, on a reddish ground, with the contour of 

 the face, the chin and belly of the purest white, defies all comparison. 

 The stripes of his head, legs, and tail are disposed with irreproachable 

 symmetry in curves of the most graceful character. So much for his 

 physical character ; let us pass to his moral. 



His appetites, and consequently his manners and instincts, differ 

 but little from those of the other Felidse, and, in particular, of the 

 lion. While he has a keen love of living flesh and warm blood, he does 

 not scorn to return, under the pressure of hunger, to a dead prey 

 already partially devoured. Like all the carnaria, a sagacious instinct 



