10 TEE ROYAL TIGEM OF BENGAL. 



and kept out of tlie way, and are consequently not 

 liable to wear or be blunted by contact with the 

 ground. "When the tiger wishes he can, by au 

 exertion of the flexor profundus, exsert the claws and 

 use them as formidable weapons. Owen ("Comp. 

 Anat. and Physiol.," p. 69, 70, vol. iii.), says, 

 "The toes of the hind foot are retracted in a 

 dififerent direction, viz., directly upon, not by the 

 sides of the second phalanges, and the elastic 

 ligaments are differently disposed." 



This, if it be the case in the lion and tiger and 

 larger felidse, is not so in ocelots and other small cats, 

 in which the arrangement is very like that of the 

 fore foot. It may be that, as climbers, they require 



Pio. 3. 



CLAW OF HIND FOOT. 



as great strength and retractility in the hind as in 

 the fore claws. 



The skeleto B-ofJihe tiger_is remarkable for, the 

 perfection of its mechanisin^__IhgJ^one9_ are-^Mn- 

 pact, dense, and strong. The trunk-is -comparatively 



