TEE S.OYAL TIGER OF BENGAL. 17 



Latin and Ghreek authors make frequent allusions 

 to the tiger — Aristotle, Virgil, Horace, Martial, 

 Claudian, Juvenal, Appian, and Pliny speak of him. 

 In the jEneiad, Virgil makes Dido to say — 



" Duris genuit te Cautibus horrens, 

 Caucasus, Hyremueque admOrunt ubera tigres." 



Pictorial evidence is not wanting, -were it neces- 

 sary, to adduce additional proof that the true tiger 

 was known in Rome ; some mosaics found in that 

 city exhibit the tiger (the real striped one) devouring 

 his prey. They are thought to have been executed in 

 commemoration of the exhibition by Claudius before 

 mentioned. The tigers exhibited by the Romans 

 were probably brought from the Blburz Mountains, 

 south of the Caspian Sea — the ancient Hyreania — 

 and also from India; in these countries they still 

 exist. But I believe tigers are seldom now seen 

 on this side of the Indus. 



Ancient accounts describe the tiger as being of 

 tremendous strength, speed, and ferocity. Modern 

 observers admit the strength and ferocity, as well 

 as the agility with which it makes its bound or 

 final rush on its prey, but deny its continued or 

 sustained swiftness. In pursuit, or in a long run, ^ 

 it is soon overtaken and brought to bay. Indeed, it 

 is the character of the felidse generally to excel rather 

 in bounds or sudden efforts of agility than in sus^ 

 tained speed, and the tiger is more remarkable in 

 this respect, perhaps, than his congeners. 



