VOL. XXXVII. No. 21. 
WHOLE No. 1478. 
NEW YORK CITY, MAY 25, 1878. 
PRICE 8XX CENTS. 
82.50 PER YEAR. 
[Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1878, by the Rural Publishing Company, in the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.] 
Naturalist, 
THE TIGEB. 
While the lion reigns supreme over the feline 
race in Africa, hia claims to undivided sover¬ 
eignty are disputed in Asia by the tiger, an ani¬ 
mal which although less high on the legs and 
more slender than the African monarch, yet 
equals him in actual Bize and strength and ex¬ 
cells him in elegance of form, beauty of fnr, and 
grace as well as activity of movement. 
In its stealthy carriage, lithe figure, Bmail 
head, maneless neck, and indeed in its whole 
appearance, the tiger bears a much closer re¬ 
semblance than the lion to the domestic cat 
which serves as a type for the whole genus of 
Jilidoe. Its handsome coed, is of a tawny yellow 
above, irregularly striped with dork-brown trans¬ 
verse bands almost at right angles with 
the body and limbs, and fading into 
white on the under parts, sb well as on 
the chest, throat, around the eyes, on 
the hack of the ears, and on tho tnfta of 
long hairs on each side of its jaws. Its 
long tail, ringed with black, slightly 
tapering, and extremely pliant, adds not 
a little to its beauty. 
It is exclusively an inhabitant of the 
continent of Asia and the adjacent 
islands. It is abundant in Java, Sumatra, 
and throughout the greater part of Hin- 
dostau. It is found also in Siam, China, 
Bokhara, Southern Siberia, as far north 
as the banks of the Obi, as well as in the 
numerous states stretohing westward to 
Persia, and, in 1833, a savage specimen 
was found by Mr. Nobdmann, wandering 
as far to the west as Tiflis, in Georgia. In 
Bengal it attains its greatest development, 
and is honored with the title of royal. 
The favorite site of its lair is on the 
border of a Btream amid tho jungles of a 
densely wooded district. To this den it 
retires to rest when gorged with abun¬ 
dant food, and from it, when urged by 
appetite, it steals forth, secretes itBelf in 
a wood or behind a clump of shrubbery 
on the border of a sequestered path, and 
there, concealed from every eye, awaits 
its victim. Tho moment it sees the ob¬ 
ject of itB desire, itB eyes flash, its supple 
tail curves with suppressed exultation, 
and its whole bearing manifests a savage 
joy. It allows the unsuspecting prey to 
advance, and when sufficiently close, 
with tremendous force and velocity 
bouudB upon it. If it gets wind of its 
prey from a distance, it glides through 
the tall grass with the uudulating move¬ 
ment of a serpent. Despite its brilliant 
hues, there is no animal that can hide 
itself more thoroughly. The markings 
harmonize so well with the dry, dusky, 
j ungle grass, among which the creature 
loves to dwell, that the herbage aud fur 
are so nearly undistinguishable that 
when it is crouching low down, even 
amid scanty vegetation, its destined vic¬ 
tim may almost tread on it without de¬ 
tecting its dangerous presence. Usually 
it takes up its post opposite its lair, so 
that it need not turn with its prey but 
proceed straight to its den with its ac¬ 
quisition. It bounds on itB victim from 
a distance of 15 or ‘20 foot. A blow from 
its sledge-like paw, with its sharp sickle- 
like talons wkioh cut like knives, is 
enough to strike to tho ground a sturdy 
ox. It first tears open tho throat and 
greedily laps the hot blood, then drags 
the victim to a secluded Bpot, watches it 
until evening, if oaptured in day-time, 
and thou beginning at the hind-quarters 
eats towards the head, crunching flesh, 
skin and bones alike, until gorged so that 
it cannot eat another mouthful. After 
having liberally slaked its thirst from a 
neighboring Btream, it then retires to its lair 
where for three dayB it lios in a Bemi-torpid condi¬ 
tion, enjoying a grand ropast and a healthy diges¬ 
tion, and relieving its craving thirst with aD occa¬ 
sional draught of nature's choicest beverage—wa¬ 
ter. It then returns to the remains of its prey, and 
without any fastidious scruples, begins another 
hearty meal, however tainted and malodorous the 
fare may have become in the interval. Acting 
on their knowledge of this habit, the natives, 
whose herds have probably furnished the banquet, 
frequently follow the track of the destroyer and 
his burthen, and in the interval between the 
first and second feast, either poison the carcass 
or construct, close to it, a scaffold from which a 
lurking marksman slays the beast on its return 
to the mess. 
The reputation which has made the word tiger, 
a synonym for savage ferocity, is due in a great 
measure to the animal's incredible audacity when 
urged on by the gnawings of an empty stomach. 
Nor doe* it delay until the last extremity before 
displaying a reckless courage in seizing on its 
prey. Although its u*ual habit is to creep 
stealthily towards its victim and spring treach¬ 
erously on it, yet there are hundreds of in¬ 
stances where the hungry monster has flung 
himself boldly on the first object that exoited his 
desire, whether it happened to be one of a caval¬ 
cade of armed horsemen, a soldier in the midst 
of an encampment, a Brahma among an admir¬ 
ing crowd, or a peasant among the excitement 
and multitude of a fair or market. Every year 
thousands of human beings, men, women and 
children, fall victims to the cunning, audacity 
and ferocity of this terrible scourge, until whole 
districts in India and elsewhere have been depop¬ 
ulated or rendered uninhabitable by its ravages. 
In one part of Java lately, 148 persons thus 
perished in a single year and 131 in the next. 
A ROYAL FAMILY. 
A tiger that has once tasted human flesh is said 
to relish the delicacy bo highly that he ever 
afterwards makes it his special aim to secure it 
at all hazards, so that the “ man-eater " beoomes 
a terror in every neighborhood he infests. An 
outer change is said to be, ere long, wrought in 
his appearance, so that he can be distinguished 
by the darker tint of his coat and a redness in 
the cornea of the eye. 
A litter of young tigers is generally composed 
of from three to five cubs. As the tiger has the 
habit of devouring all the newly born young of 
his own box he can lay his paws on, the tigress, 
just before dropping her young, searches about 
for some secret, inaccessible spot where she may 
in safety give birth to her progeny. Moreover, 
she is extremely careful to make all her tracks 
in the neighborhood as intricate and confused as 
possible. She manifests an extraordinary degree 
of affection for her offsprings and will defend 
them from danger often at the peril of 
her own life. A litter of tiger oubs 
playing round their couchant dam is not 
at all unlike one of kittens gamboling 
about and over their prostrate mother. 
The tiger is an excellent swimmer and 
readily takes to the water in pursuit or 
search of prey, but as ho swims high, he 
affords a good mark to the kuuter. 
While a slight wound from his claws, 
owing probably U> the shock to the 
nervous system, is extremely dangerous 
as a cause of lock-jaw, the tiger himself 
frequently perishes from what on an¬ 
other animal would be a trifling iDjury. 
On him a small wound soon gets tainted, 
the fieoh rapidly yields to putrefaction, 
and maggots and blow-flies torment him 
to death. 
When captured young aud submitted 
to skillfnl training the tiger is capable of 
a good deal of tameness and affection, 
as all havi uow-a-daya frequent oppor¬ 
tunities of witnessing ; for the menag¬ 
erie finds its way into every corner of the 
land, and at it every youngster can see 
tigers handled like poodles. 
To the ancient inhabitants of Europe 
the lion was known long, long before the 
tiger had ever been seen. Pliny tells 
a* that the first ever brought to Rome 
was in the reigu of Augustus. Three- 
quarters of a century later, Nero's pet 
tiger was as great a terror to his cour¬ 
tiers as the tyrant himself was to subject 
humanity. After one of his wild orgies, 
it was a common practice of Ins to point 
out to his attendant brute some Patri¬ 
cian who had incurred his displeasure or 
at whose expense he wished to create at 
once amusement and excitement, and 
straightw ay the wretch's mangled corpse 
was laid at the feet of the human mon¬ 
ster. About a century and a half later 
Heliogabalus entered Rome on a ohariot 
drawn by four tigers ana as many leop¬ 
ards all of which were afterwards allowed 
to roatn at liberty around the palace of 
the cruel and voluptuous tyrant. In the 
East tigers have for ages been the em¬ 
blems of power, as well as among the 
sources of its amusement and the objects 
of its display. 
It has been a subject of frequent re¬ 
mark that it seems a trifle inconsistent 
with the beneficence of the Creator that 
so many animals have to support life by 
the destruction of others, all the more 
painful from the lacerations of their 
carnivorous destroyers. Some maintain, 
however, that there is a beneficent pro¬ 
vision by which all sense of pain is ex¬ 
pelled after the first shock on being 
seized by a carnivorous animal. Num¬ 
erous instances to this effect have been 
cited, especially that of Dr, Livingstone. 
On one of his early visits to central 
Africa, he was flung to the ground by 
the sudden attack of a lion, and before 
