ZOOLOGY. 



displayed in liis form and contour. But the sense of his 

 native cruelty, and irreclaimable nature, fill the mind with 

 a secret and thrilling sense of detestation and horror, while 

 astonishment usurps the place of pleasure. 



The Royal Tiger of Indostan, and which is supposed 

 to be of the largest race of these animals at present known, 

 measures fourteen feet from its head to the end of its 

 tail; his body is muscular and round, his feet large and 

 projecting, armed with prehensile claws, each of them 

 enclosed in a hollow horny sheath, like those of the Cat* 

 tribe. His legs are short and not well calculated for 

 swiftness, but rather for bounding or leaping upon his 

 prey, for which he generally lies in wait, making a spring 

 of twenty or thirty feet at a time upon the object he 

 intends to seize. His tail is long and beautifully striped, 

 in a similar manner with his back, having bands of dark 

 brown placed across : and in this respect he differs mate- 

 rially from the Leopard and Panther, which are remarkable 

 rather by their round spots scattered irregularly over 

 their bodies. 



It would be an astonishing circumstance to the human 

 mind that the merciful Author pf Nature should have 

 created such animals only for the purposes of devastation, 

 if we were not at the same time convinced how necessary 

 it is, that the smaller race of animals should be reduced 

 and kept under, and in this point the balance of nature 

 is as admirably preserved, the fiercer and more powerful 

 animals producing only a few young ones at a time. The 

 Tiger notwithstanding his strength, has the peculiar cow-? 

 ardice never to attack his enemy in front, and unless 

 urgently pressed by famine, it is probable he would not 

 fail always to fly from man ; but if assaulted, his rage 

 gets the better of his fear, and he becomes resolute even 

 to death. The Lion, Buffalo and Rhinoceros are his natural 



EH 



