THE TIGER 



{Felis tigris) 



The Tiger is not only the most brilliantly coloured of the Cats, but the 

 largest and most powerful; for he is more evenly developed than the 

 Lion, whose hind-quarters are less massive than his fore-parts, and he 

 also attains to a larger size and greater weight. A fine Tiger measures 

 about ten feet in total length, and few exceed this measurement. 



The Tigress is very similar to her mate in general appearance, but 

 is rather smaller and less stoutly built, especially about the head, and 

 she lacks the long hair which forms the whiskers at the side of the face 

 in the old male. 



Young cubs are striped just like their parents, so that stripes form 

 the characteristic livery of the beast under all circumstances. 



There is, however, much individual variation in the development of 

 these markings ; it would hardly be an exaggeration to say that the 

 fine animal in the illustration — the best Indian male in the London 

 Zoological Gardens at the time — has twice as many stripes as either 

 of two Nepal specimens also in the collection. In some Tigers, too, 

 the individual stripes are to a great extent double, and the variation 

 in details of pattern is almost endless. 



Extreme varieties, however, are rare in the Tiger; a black one has 

 once been seen, but though it was found dead its skin was not pre- 

 served. White specimens sometimes occur, and I have myself seen 

 two skins of such ; one, which was exhibited some years ago at a 

 scientific meeting of our Zoological Society, showed the characteristic 

 stripes in a pale fawn tint, while the other, which was fished, for 

 my inspection, out of the pickling-tub in which it was being cured, in 

 Calcutta, appeared to have no stripes at all on the hair, though they 

 were to be seen on the underlying skin ; much like the dark spots so 

 common on the under-parts of white Dogs. 



