BOTANIC GARDENS MENAGERIE. 149 



rush to the further end, and finding a wooden platform put for 

 her to sit on, investigated it carefully by feeling with her paws 

 underneath before she would sit on it. She was fed on 

 pariah dogs, beef, or goat, and always supplied with grass 

 which she would often take from the hand. She got tired of 

 dogs after a time, and her diet had to be changed. Chickens 

 she used to appreciate. First plucking all the feathers off she 

 washed the carcase carefully in her water before eating it. 

 She was also partial to rats, holding them in her paws and 

 biting off the head and gradually eating them. Occasionally a 

 tiger requires liquid blood, as otherwise it gets constipated, 

 and this was always difficult to get, as she would not touch 

 it if coagulated. A rhinoceros having died in the gardens she 

 thoroughly enjoyed its flesh, and also drank the blood greedily. 

 She very much delighted in rolling on her back in a shallow 

 tank of water provided for her, especially on hot days. 

 When she became full grown she took to roaring at sundown, 

 and occasionally later, especially on moonlight nights, and her 

 cry Ah-oum could be heard at a great distance. Like most of 

 the local tigers she was very light coloured the fur being quite 

 yellow. Another very fine tiger kept for some time in the 

 gardens before being sent to Cairo, was of a rich chestnut 

 brown. It had been caught in Sumatra. The food of a tiger 

 costs about -fifty dollars a month. Other examples were offered 

 by H. H. the Sultan of Johore and other people, but the ex- 

 pense of keeping these big cats was too great for the limited 

 funds of the gardens. A wild tiger inhabited the Garden Jungle 

 for some months in 1893, having probably wandered there 

 from Bukit Timah. 



Felis pardus. 



The Leopard though easily procurable, could not be kept 

 on account of its cost in food. However in 1876 a spotted 

 leo] iard presented by the King of Siam, was on view for some 

 time, and a couple of cubs of the black panther were deposited 

 in the gardens for a short time. The latter were very vicious, 

 though quite small. They snarled and fought whenever any 

 one came near them. 



R. A. See, No 46,, 1906. 



