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Tiger, or Jaguar. 
and declares that she is— 
“ More inhuman, more inexorable, 
0, ten times more, than tigers of Hyrcania.” 
(3 Henry VI., i. 4.) 
The distinction drawn between the natures of the 
lion and tiger has little foundation in fact. The habits 
of both species are very similar. The tiger does occa¬ 
sionally destroy more than is sufficient to satisfy its 
hunger, but in general it is content with a single victim. 
The name Tiger was given by travellers and early 
writers on natural history to many species, some of 
which, like the jaguar, are undoubtedly more bloodthirsty 
than others. The character of the natives of the coun¬ 
tries which these animals inhabit may have something to 
do with their respective attributes. 
Oviedo, in an account of the West Indies, sent by 
him to the Emperor Charles V., in 1525 ( Purchas , vol. 
iii. p. 990), describes the jaguar under the name of tiger. 
His misgivings as to the correctness of the name are well 
founded, as the range of the tiger is confined exclusively 
to Asia. He writes— 
“ In the Firme Land [S. America] are found many terrible beasts, 
which some think to be tigres. Which thing nevertheless I dare not 
affirme, considering what authors doe write of the lightnesse and 
agilitie of the tigre, whereas this beast, being otherwise in shape very 
like a tigre, is notwithstanding very slow.” 
The stealthy motion it frequently adopts in order to 
approach its victim, probably gave this writer the idea 
that the jaguar was a slow animal. Oviedo proceeds to 
point out that many creatures of undoubtedly the same 
species vary considerably in different parts of the world :— 
“ The sheepe of Arabie draw their tailes long and bigge on the 
ground, and the bulls of Egypt have their haire growing toward their 
heads, yet are those sheepe, and these buls. . . . Men, likewise, which 
in some countries are blacke, are in other places white: and yet are 
