THE MANCHURIAN TIGER 



rats. To capture their victims they frequently resort to the drinking-places of the 

 latter, and in summer they likewise pay constant visits to the salt-pans where the 

 wapiti and other deer come to lick the salt. 



Each pair of tigers generally frequents the same lair, which in mountainous 

 districts is concealed amid rocks, while in the plains the requisite shelter is 

 afforded by reed-brakes. In winter the tigers may be completely snowed up in 

 their retreats. As in India, the tigress is reported to separate herself from the tiger 

 a short time before giving birth to her young ; these being born in some dense 

 thicket or rocky cleft, their number varying from two to four. At birth they are 

 about the same size as lion-cubs, but are marked in the same fashion as their 

 parents, although clothed in more woolly coats. In India it is generally stated 

 that the female keeps apart from the male while the cubs are young, although both 

 parents have been seen with their offspring. Like lions, tigers associate for the 

 greater part of the year in pairs, and are strictly monogamous. 



Whether old tigers in Siberia turn man-eaters, after the fashion of their 

 brethren in India, does not appear to be known ; but in much of their range it is 

 probable that they do not resort to this mode of livelihood, on account of the 

 sparseness of the population. It appears, however, that throughout northern 

 China and Siberia the natives regard the tiger with much the same superstitious 

 awe as do the natives of Hindustan. All the Siberian natives consider the tiger 

 as a being of high nature, although the Tunguses look upon it as an evil spirit 

 which has come under the influence of the Shamans, or sorcerers. 



Fossil bones from the New Siberian Islands indicate that the Manchurian 

 tiger once ranged beyond the Arctic Circle. 



