MAMMALIA—TIGER. 18] 
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 town, 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 Buffon 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. Ona ground which exhibits in different 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 ef 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 
detween 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. 
