ever seen. Besides crunching the bone into splinters, he left eleven teeth-wounds in the upper part of my arm.

7. We hear of the majestic roar of the king of beasts. It is indeed well calculated to inspire fear, if you hear it in combination with the tremendously loud thunder of that country, on a night so pitchy dark that every flash of the intensely vivid lightning leaves you with the impression of stone-blindness, while the rain pours down so fast that your fire goes out, leaving you without the protection of even a tree, or the chance of your gun going off. But when you are in a comfortable house or wagon, the case is very different, and you hear the roar of the lion without any awe or alarm. The silly ostrich makes a noise as loud. yet it never was feared by man. To talk of the majestic roar of the lion is mere majestic twaddle.

8. On my mentioning this fact some years ago, the assertion was doubted; so I have been careful ever since to inquire the opinions of Europeans who have heard both, if they could detect any difference between the roar of a lion and that of an ostrich. The invariable answer was that they could not when the animal was at a distance. The natives assert that they can detect a variation between the commencement of the noise of each.

9. There is, it must be admitted, a considerable difference between the singing noise of a lion when full, and his deep gruff voice when hungry. In general, the lion's voice seems to come deeper from the chest than that of the ostrich; but to this day I can distinguish between them with certainty only by knowing that the ostrich roars by day and the lion by night.

DR. LIVINGSTONE.

41.-TRAITS OF THE TIGER.

doç'ile, teachable.

lithe, pliant, flexible.

mo-rose', of a sour temper. na'bob, a wealthy man. or'gy, a revel.

pa-tri'cian [pa-trish'an], a noble

man.

sub'tle [sut'le], sly.

tes'ti-fied, showed.
un'dü-lāt-ing, wave-like.

1. THE tiger is as high on the limbs as the lion; but it is more slender, active, and stealthy, closely resembling, in figure and movements, the domestic cat, which serves as the type of the entire genus. Its coat is very handsome, being of a yellowish fawn color above and a pure white beneath; everywhere irregularly striped by brown transverse bands. Its tail, which is very long, is ringed with black, and contributes not a little to its beauty. It has also white around the eyes, on the jaws, and on the back of each ear. It is peculiar to Asia, inhabiting Java, Sumatra, a great part of Hindostan, and China.

2. The tiger makes its lair in jungles or densely-wooded districts bordering on water-courses. Like the lion, it has a den, to which it retires for rest. Thence it steals forth, secretes itself in a wood on the borders of a frequented path, and there, concealed from every eye, awaits its victim. The moment it sees the object of its desire, its eyes flash, and its whole bearing manifests a savage joy. It allows the unsuspecting prey to draw near, and when it is sufficiently close, springs upon it with tremendous velocity. If it winds prey at a distance, it glides through the high grass with the undulating movements of the serpent, almost impossible to be detected by the human eye.

3. The tiger has for a long time borne a reputation for cruelty, as little deserved as that for generosity which has been given the lion. The old naturalists pretended that the tiger gloried in shedding blood, and that it never saw a living creature without desiring to destroy it. Nothing can be more untrue. The tiger does not kill for the pleasure of killing; it kills only to appease its hunger.

4. Although the tiger is possessed of great strength, and moves through the thickets of the jungle with the lithe, noiseless action characteristic of all the cats (coming suddenly upon his prey, which, unaware of the subtle approach of its cunning foe, may be resting in fancied security), yet at times he too falls a victim to an adversary as cruel and remorseless as himself.

5. Many of the rivers and lakes in the hot lands where this animal dwells fairly swarm with crocodiles. Those huge, repulsive reptiles are frequently seen stretched at full length upon some sand-bar, sleeping in the rays of the mid-day sun, or else submerged in the water, every portion of them hidden save the eye and nostrils (which are elevated above the rest of the face), remaining motionless near the shore, waiting to seize upon any animal that may approach the stream.

6. When lying on the bank they can hardly be distinguished from it, or, if seen, appear at a little distance like dead trunks of some fallen trees. They have two modes of attack. One is, if they can get sufficiently near their prey, to seize it in their terrible jaws, and drag it to the bottom of the river. Another and often practiced method is, to watch close to the bank, and when an animal draws near to the water, suddenly to sweep it into the stream by a rapid and powerful blow of the tail (which can be wielded

with even greater dexterity than a coachman's whip), and having thus brought the victim within reach of the mouth, to drag it beneath the surface, and speedily devour it.

7. Tiger-hunting holds a high place among the amusements of the Indian nabobs and the English officers stationed in Hindostan. This sport is principally followed on elephants placed in line, and on which the hunters ride. When all is ready, at a preconcerted signal they enter the jungles, beat them in every direction, and compel the tiger to show itself. Fire-arms then do their work. It often happens that the ferocious beast springs on the flank of an elephant and tries to seize one of the riders.

8. Whatever may be said to the contrary, the tiger is capable of being trained and rendered perfectly docile; it is even susceptible of a certain degree of attachment. One that lived in a managerie in Paris had been brought from India in a ship on which it had been allowed to wander about at large. The confidence it inspired was such that the cabin-boys lay between its legs, and slept with their heads on its flanks.

9. A tigress which had been brought to England, and which had not shown any signs of a bad disposition on board ship, became morose when shut up in the managerie. Some time after, however, a sailor, one of its late traveling companions, came to visit the managerie, and solicited permission to enter the den where this tigress was confined. The latter at once recognized him, and testified the greatest pleasure. All the day after its friend had departed it lay prostrate with grief.

10. It is said that Nero had a tigress, named Phoebe, which he often kept near him in his apartments, and which he more than once made the instrument of his brutal, vindictive feelings. At the termination of an orgy, nothing gratified him so much as to point out to this animal some illustrious patrician that had come under his displeasure,