ALERTNESS OF TIGER 
Zoo at Dublin has been for years famed as a manu- 
factory of lions, which breed with the greatest success. 
Even in travelling menageries the same success has 
been attained, which is, to say the least of it, unex- 
pected. It is unnecessary to say that the visitor will 
find at least half a dozen lions at any given time in the 
Zoo. 
THE TIGER 
The tiger (Felis tigris) is undoubtedly the largest of 
living cats, and even equals the great cave lion and the 
sabre tooths of antiquity. It shows what is rare among 
cats, transverse striping instead of spots; and so 
firmly fixed in the tiger race is this plan of colour that 
the newly born young show the same striping as their 
parents. Often, as has been pointed out in the case 
of the puma, the young of the carnivora show a different 
mode of coloration to that of their parents. A careful 
study of the stripes of the tiger shows that they are 
not so remote from the prevailing feline spotting as 
might appear at first sight. In many cases the bar 
has a white or rather tawny centre, and thus suggests 
a large spot pulled out lengthwise. The colour of the 
Royal Bengal tiger is so very well known that it needs 
no further comment. But there is one point of some 
little interest to which comparatively little attention 
has been paid. When the tiger is sleeping with its 
head on its front paws, and its ears turned rather 
forwards, it will be observed that there is a bright white 
spot, with a black rim upon each ear. The effect of 
this is to give the sleeping beast a look of alertness, for 
the spots are not unsuggestive of eyes. The common 
cat has something of the same kind, which has been 
often referred to, and has been also figured. When the 
eyes are Closed the arrangement of the pattern of colour 
above them gives the impression of a watchful and 
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