i86 HISTORY OF QUADRUPEDS. 



The TIGER 



is the moft rapacious and deftrudtive of all carnivorous 

 animals. Fierce without provocation, and cruel without 

 neceffity, its thirft for blood is infatiable : Though glut- 

 ted with daughter, it continues its carnage, nor ever 

 gives up fo long as a fingle object remains in its fight : 

 Flocks and herds fall indifcriminate victims to its fury : 

 It fears neither the fight nor the oppofition of man, 

 whom it frequently makes its prey ; and it is even faid to 

 prefer human flefh to that of any other animal. 



The Tiger is peculiar to Afia, and is found as far 

 North as China, and Chinefe Tartary : It inhabits Mount 

 Ararat, and Hyrcania, of old famous for its wild beafts. 

 The greateft numbers are met with in India, and its 

 iflands. They are the fcourge of the country : They 

 lurk among the bufhes, by the fides of rivers, and al- 

 moft depopulate many places. They feldom purfue their 

 prey; but bound upon it from the place of their ambufh, 

 with an elafticity, and from a diftance, fcarcely credible. 

 It is highly probable, that, from this circumftance, the 



