TIGER V. LION.

Thames Star, Volume IIII, Issue 1750, 12 August 1874, Page 3

TIGER V. LION.

That most beautiful animal, the tiger, has in Ids hind l««g an enormous triangular muscle three feet long ; in the leg of man the muscle is not triangular, but like a rope with parallel fibres. The reason that the muscle in man's leyj was not like the muscle in the leg of a tiger, was because he was a man and not a Tiger. It was no part of his profession to hide in a jungle, to take a great leap from the jungle on to the back of a horse, to tear a man off the horse, and to eat him. The muscle of the leg of a tiger is particularly adapted to enable it to take such enormous leaps; this compensates for a certain amount of loss of force owing to the shape of the muscle. Thi-re is, moreover, a gain to the " picking " of the muscle, owing to its triangular shape, and there is gain in the matter of beauty ot external form. The tiger is stronger" than the lion. He did not wish to upset ideas implanted in youth, but he was sorry to say that although the lion has a big mane and claws and looks big, he is a humbug, like many people he knew. The lion is inferior to the tiger. The Babylonian lion is a poor animal, and he would back a couple of Newfoundland dogs co fight him. In the reign of the cruel Emperor Titus, Bengal tigers, which naturally are gentle animals were imported into Home by him. The tigers learned bad manners from the civilised (?) Komans, and were made to fight some lions imported from Africa. The tigers always killed the lions. He knew something of the strengh. of the tiger, as he had bern for many years secretary to the Dublin Zoological Gardens. In captivity, as the tigers do not run about much or scratch tiees, their claws grow very long, till they turn into the body of the feet and would kill him in no time; therefore his claws have to be cut occasionally. This might be a light thing to speak about, but it was a delicate operation to perform, as any on© would soon learn who had. to assist a tiger in hid toilet. When he first cut the nails of a tiger, eight men helped him; five men are necessary to overpower a lion, and this shows the difference in the muscular strength of the two animals. His assistants held the head of the tiger near the bars of the cage by nvans of a rope with stop knot in it, placed round his neck, and the paw was held off the ground by means of another rope. It was a great thing to hold the paw off the ground, because then the tiger was obliged to keep the other one on the floor, or he would have been suspended by the rope and choked. The tigress, however, thought she would interfere, and came over to the door just as he was going to cut the claws, tine put out her paw and laid hold of his hat. The eight men then resolved themselves into their component parts, for the tigress had thrown up the sliding doors of the cage. Seven of the men took to their heels, the other one remained with him, and there they were face to face with the animals. The tiger bent fora spring through the door, he jerked the ; door down, and the tiger broke his teeth against it. He then collected the seven men, obtained as much muscnlar energy out of them as could be got out of seven cowards, and cut the claws of the tiger. The animal felt the relief from pain which resulted, and began to pur, held up the paw to him, drew back the shortened claws, and licked his hand. —Dr S. Houghton.