444 CLASS MAMMALIA. 



the animal is living under restraint, and much more when 

 a skin is dried and prepared for commercial purposes. 



The Tigress is pregnant about fourteen weeks, produces 

 four or five at a time, and has been known to breed when 

 confined. When first born, the young do not exceed the 

 size of a Kitten about three months old. They are of a 

 pale-gray colour with obscure dusky transverse bars, like 

 those proper to the Lion of the same age. 



A white variety of the Tiger is sometimes seen, with the 

 stripes very opaque, and not to be observed except in cer- 

 tain angles of light. We have engraved from a specimen 

 of this variety, formerly in Exeter 'Change. 



We have already had occasion to offer a few observations 

 on the production of mules, considered quite independently 

 of the standing mystery of fecundation. The instance 

 quoted was that of a breed between the Common Chacal 

 and the species or variety of Senegal. We have at this 

 place to notice a similar reproduction between two species 

 of a more prominent character on the great theatre of life, 

 between, in fact, the two tyrants of the world — the African 

 Lion and the Asiatic Tiger. 



The recent discoveries of intermediate genera, discove- 

 ries resulting principally from the superior degree of atten- 

 tion lately paid to comparative anatomy, have puzzled and 

 confused the strict systematic zoologists. The small portion 

 of the animal kingdom contemplated in the previous pages, 

 has furnished several instances of these intermediate animals 

 partaking, in many points of character and peculiarities, 

 of distant and strongly-marked genera. It has also fur- 

 nished ample proofs of the effects of secondary causes on 

 animal organization, and demonstrated that all the varieties 

 of animated nature before us are not the result of distinct 

 acts of original creation, but are, in fact, from time to time, 

 springing up before our eyes. 



Few branches of natural knowledge are more obscure 

 t.han the excitements to these modifications of animals. 



