MAMMALIA— TIGER. 181 



smallest danger of losing them, her rage, her fury, becomes extravagant. 

 To oppose the daring invaders of her den, she braves every danger. On 

 such occasions, she pursues the spoiler with an enmity the most inveterate ; 

 and he, contented to lose a part in order to save a part, is frequently obliged 

 to drop one of her cubs. With this she immediately returns to her den, 

 and again pursues him : he then drops another ; and, by the time she has 

 returned with that, he generally escapes with the remainder. Should her 

 young be torn from her entirely, with hideous cries she expresses her agony 

 and her despair, and follows the captor to the very to^vn, or ship, in which 

 he may have taken refuge, and dares him, as it were, to come forth. 



The skins of these animals are much esteemed all over the East, particu- 

 larly in China ; the mandarins cover their seats of justice in the public 

 places with them, and convert them into coverings for cushions in winter. 

 The Indians eat the flesh of the tiger, and find it neither disagreeable nor 

 unwholesome. 



Such is the character which BufTon and many other naturalists have given 

 to the tiger, and it certainly is not calculated to prejudice us in his favor. 

 More recent writers have, however, and apparently with justice, endeavor- 

 ed to remove a part of the odium which has been thrown upon him. Mr 

 Bennett, the scientific and acute author of the description of the animals in 

 the Tower Menagerie and the Zoological Gardens, has labored with much 

 eloquence to raise the tiger in the scale of estimation. "Closely allied to 

 the lion," says he, "whom he resembles in power, in external form, in 

 internal structure, in zoological character, in his prowling habits, and in his 

 sanguinary propensities, the tiger is at once distinguished from that king 

 of beasts, and from every other of their common genus, by the peculiar 

 marking of his coat. On a ground which exhibits in diflerent individuals 

 various shades of yellow, he is elegantly striped by a series of transverse 

 black bands or bars, which occupy the sides of his head, neck, and body, 

 and are continued upon his tail, in the form of rings, the last of the series 

 uniformly occupying the extremity of that organ, and giving to it a black 

 tip of greater or less extent. The under parts of his body and the inner 

 sides of his legs are almost entirely white : he has no mane, and his whole 

 frame, though less elevated than that of the lion, is of a slenderer and more 

 graceful make. His head is also shorter, and more rounded. 



"Almost in the same degree that the lion has been exalted and magnified, 

 at the expense of his fellow brutes, has the tiger been degraded and depress- 

 ed below his natural level. While the one has been held up to admiration, 

 as the type and standard of heroic perfection, the other has, with equal 

 capriciousness and disregard of the close and intimate relationship subsisting 

 between them, been looked upon by mankind in general, with those feelings 

 of unmingled horror and detestation, which his character for untamable 

 ferocity and insatiable thirst of blood, was so well calculated to inspire. It 

 requires, however, but little consideration to teach us that the broad distinc- 



