Tiger (fells tlgrls, Linn.), one of the largest, strongest, and most active of the cat family, peculiar to Asia. It is usually about 8 ft. long and between 3 and 4 ft. high, but occasionally is considerably larger; the ground color is bright orange yellow, the face, throat, and under parts nearly white, and all elegantly striped with transverse black bands and bars; it is less high but longer and more slender than the lion, with rounder head and more cat-like form; the colors are brightest in the adult male, the young being grayish with obscure dusky bands; it has no mane. It lies in ambush at early dawn by the sides of springs and rivers for animals as they come to drink; it is able to leap a great distance upon its prey, carrying off a buffalo with apparent ease, a powerful man being as nothing in its jaws; its motions are exceedingly supple and graceful; it passes the day for the most part in a shady covert, gorged and sleepy from the morning meal. Its north and south geographical range is extensive, from northern China to the Malay peninsula, but it is most abundant in the vast jungles lining the banks of the great rivers of Hindostan. In many parts of Bengal it is the terror and scourge of villages, prowling around the outskirts, and attacking cattle in the fold and on the road, though the natives protect them in part by noisy drums by day and torches by night-; men and women frequently fall victims.

The English rifle has nearly cleared the thickly settled districts of these animals, against which the native traps and weapons (spears and poisoned arrows) are comparatively powerless. The tiger makes no noise comparable to the roar of the lion, but rather a loud grunting sound. It may be tamed when taken young, but its temper cannot be depended on; it breeds in captivity, though less frequently than the lion; hybrids between the Asiatic lion and tigress have been born in menageries, but have not reached maturity; their color is brighter and the bands better marked than in young lions or tigers of unmixed race. Pliny says the first tiger known in Rome was a tame one belonging to the emperor Augustus. - See Capt. Shakespear's " Wild Sports of India " (London and Boston, 1860), and "The Royal Tiger of Bengal, his Life and Death," by J. Fayrer, M. D. (London, 1875). - The so-called American tiger is the jaguar (F. onca, Linn.).

Tiger (Felis tigris).