“It is generally admitted that the Tiger attains the greatest size in India, and there can be no doubt that he is really the largest of the existing _Felidæ_.... The size of the Tiger varies; some individuals attain great bulk and weight, though they are shorter than others which are of a slighter and more elongated form. The statements as to the length they attain are conflicting and often exaggerated; errors are apt to arise from measurements taken from the skin after it is stretched, when it may be ten or twelve inches longer than before removal from the body. The Tiger should be measured from the nose along the spine to the tip of the tail as he lies dead on the spot where he fell before the skin is removed. One that is ten feet by this measurement is large, and the full-grown male does not often exceed this, though no doubt larger individuals (males) are occasionally seen, and I have been informed by Indian sportsmen of reliability that they have seen and killed Tigers over twelve feet in length. The full-grown male Indian Tiger, therefore, may be said to be from nine to twelve feet, or twelve feet two inches, the Tigress from eight to ten, or perhaps, in very rare instances, eleven feet in length, the height being from three to three and a half, or, very rarely, four feet at the shoulder. But we must look with doubt on Buffon’s statement that one had attained a length of fifteen feet; and with even greater hesitation can we accept the recorded statement that Hyder Ally presented a Tiger to the Nawab of Arcot that measured eighteen feet.” The Tiger is entirely confined to Asia, where its range is very wide, extending from the Caspian to the Sea of Okhotsk, and from latitude 50° southwards. It has been found in the Elburz Mountains, Bokhara, China, Malaysia, Sumatra, Borneo, Java, and Bali. It is known about Ceylon and from the great tableland of Tibet. Its head-quarters are North India, where great numbers are killed annually. From what has been said, it will be evident that the Tiger is by no means, as one is very apt to imagine, an altogether tropical animal; the Caucasus, the western limit of its range, is far from being a warm region, and its eastern limit, the island of Saghalien, is as far north as Kamtchatka. It has been found also at a height of 8,000 feet above sea-level. It is an interesting circumstance that the Tigers found amongst the snows of Mantchuria and Corea have the “body covered with long softish hairs,” and a shaggy ruff round the neck. Thus, as is so constantly the case, a definite variety is produced solely by the action of surrounding conditions. Certain Tigers find it advantageous to live farther north than the generality of their kind, so as to have a freer field for their depredations than would be afforded to them by the more southern districts, and, to suit themselves to the vigorous climate, acquire long warm fur, such as would be quite out of place on the back of a denizen of the Bengal jungles.