It is a somewhat remarkable circumstance, considering the nearness of Palestine to the Caucasus and Elburz Mountains, that the Tiger is not once mentioned in the Bible. It was, however, well known to the Greeks and Romans, and, like the Lion, was a regular performer at the amphitheatre. The district called Hyrcania, a tract of land lying to the south-east of the Caspian Sea, seems to have been the most noted spot for Tigers. In the “Æneid,” Dido, in her magnificent declamation against the perfidy of Æneas, is made to say-- “Nec tibi Diva parens, genius nec Dardanus auctor, Perfide, sed duris genuit te cautibus horrens Caucasus, _Hyrcanæque_ admôrunt ubera tigres.” “(Perfidious monster! boast thy birth no more; No hero got thee, and no goddess bore: No! thou wert brought by Scythian rocks to day, By Tigers nurs’d and savages of prey.)” and Shakspere uses the same expression:-- “The rugged Pyrrhus, like the _Hyrcanian_ beast.” In disposition the Tiger differs but little from the other wild _Felidæ_. Although possessed of such immense strength and ferocity, he often shows himself a very coward. Like most animals he scarcely ever attacks an armed man unless provoked, that is, unless he (or she) be a confirmed “man-eater,” although often seizing upon women and children. He shares with our Domestic Cat a love of cruelty for its own sake. The author of “Rambles in the Mirzapore District” says of this essentially feline character:--“It is sometimes an interesting sight to witness the demeanour of a Tiger towards his terrified prey (_i.e._, when a victim is tied up for him, and the sportsman waits to shoot him in the tree above it). When not raging with hunger, he appears to derive the same pleasure from playing with his victim as a Cat in tormenting a Mouse. He gambols around the Buffalo as if enjoying his alarm; and when the affrighted animal, in mad despair, feebly attempts to butt at his remorseless foe, the Tiger bounds lightly over his head, and recommences his gambols at the other side. At last, as if he had succeeded in creating an appetite for dinner, he crushes the skull of his victim with one blow of his powerful fore-paw, and soon commences his bloody meal.”