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No. VI THE CAT TRIBE. 

 PART II. 



"XT EXT in order comes the Tiger, which is spread 

 ! ^ over a considerable part of Asia. The animal 

 which if. popularly called the ' tiger ' by African 

 hunters is only a large leopard, and the ' tiger ' of 

 American hunters is the jaguar. It is by no means 

 equally distributed, some parts of the country being 

 absolutely infested by the animals, while in others 

 they are seldom or never seen. 



The tiger is fully equal both in size and strength to 

 the lion, and certainly surpasses that animal in the 

 ease and grace of its movements. Its colour is a 

 bright, tawny yellow, with a number of dark brownish- 

 black stripes, some of which are double, running round 

 the body at right angles to the limbs. On the lower 

 parts of the body the fur becomes nearly white, and 

 the dark stripes melt almost imperceptibly into the 

 general ground colour. 



Occasionally a tiger is found whose fur is of a 

 uniform greyish-white hue, the stripes being scarcely 

 visible. This is usually known by the name of White 

 Tiger, but is merely a variety of the common species. 



It seems strange that so brightly-coloured an animal 

 as is the Tiger should be so extremely inconspicuous 

 among the underwood of its native jungles. Such, how- 

 ever, is the case, and a tiger at the distance of ten or 

 fifteen yards would be perfectly invisible except to the 

 most practised eye. For the dark stripes harmonise so 

 perfectly with the dark shadows between the upright 



