CARNIVORA.
FELIDA).
Genus E e l i s , Linn.
* I1 el i s t ig r i s , Linn.
Felts tigria, Linn., Syst. Nat. Halae, 10 ed. 1760, p. 41.
Tigris regalia, Gray, Proe. Zool. Soe. Lond. 1867, p. 6S8, et Oat. Carniv. etc., Brit. Mus. 1869,
p . 1 0 .
The tiger is very prevalent in the neighbourhood of Bhamft on both hanks of
the Irawady and of its affluent, the Tapeng; it is of less frequent occurrence in
the Kakhyen hill», but it ascends there to an elevation of 4,000 feet, and is far from
unoommon on the h ill» and in the valleys to the east wherever it can find sufficient
cover. Bhamd is enclosed hy a stockade about 9 feet high, hut this is no protection
against the inroads of tigers, which not unfrequently enter the town at night after
the gates have been closed at sundown. One tigress, the townspeople asserted, was
seen to clear the stockade with a man in her mouth. During my short stay in the
town I was present at the hunt after a tigress with her cub which had entered the
town and carried off an old woman while sitting making thatch in the verandah of
her hut, which was closely surrounded hy other dwellings. They are especially
numerous about Tsitkaw, where the long jungle grass of the level plain affords
them ample cover, and out of two closely adjoining villages six people had been
killed hy tigers in as many months. But notwithstanding the prevalence of this
anim»!, and although it was my habit to spend the greater part of the day in
the jungle outside Bhamd and Tsitkaw, I never yet came across a tiger, hut saw
frequent evidences of their presence in their footprints.
The skins of newly killed animals were frequently brought to me for sale in
the Sanda valley, also skulls and the bones of the legs, and these materials enabled
me to determine that the tigers of these elevated districts of Western Yunnan
differ in no perceptible way from the tiger of India.
The tiger found in the northern portions of China, as pointed out hy Swinhoe,1
is a pale race with few stripes and distinguished by the long character of its fur,
which is also more pliable and softer than that of the southern race which, he
says, resembles the Bengal tiger, and which is found as far north as Shanghai, and
has also been obtained at Amoy, Canton,' and Ningpo.8 The long-haired race
with the stripes fully marked is found in Manohuria, where, A. M.-Edwards8 states it
is subject to considerable variation, as L’Abbé David had observed nearly hrowntih
black and nearly perfectly white individuals. Swinhoe* is not convinced of the
M H a a i these H g H and soutbem types of the Chinese tiger, but
A. M.-Edwards states that the differences that exist between them are too slight
to O H their identity being doubted. He has compared a cast of the
skull of the north China race with a skull from Siam, and has only been able to
detect a few insignificant variations. The wide distribution of the species has been
indicated by Blyth“ and Swinhoe.
In the Kakhyen hills, as in Assam, the tiger is killed with bamboo arrows
poisoned hy the juice of a species of Aconite which is widely distributed over
the eastern Himalaya, Assam, and the Kakhyen hills, and which is well known to
the different hill tribes of these countries.
* Felis pardtjs, Linn.
A& ^ L m a S y rt. Not 12th ed. 1766, vol. i. p. 61, e t ¿J«. 18th ed. Gmelin, vol. i. 1788,
p. 77; Endeben, Syst. Reg. Ann. 1777, p. 606; Sebieber, Saugeth. vol. Hi. 1778 p 884
— I Z-mniermami, Geach. 1780, vol. | p. 261; Fiscber, Syn. M am k 1829,'
p. 200 ; Temimnck, Monogr. Mamin, vol. i. p. 99
Lmn Syat Nab Gmelin, 18th ed. 1788, vol. i. p. 77; Erxleben, Syat. Beg. Ann
1777 p. 509; Sehreber, Sangetb. vol. in. 1778, p. 887, pi. ei.j Zimmennann, Geograph
m ^ v l u . ^ . 92 P' ! KSOher' ^ Mam“ ’ *829' P' I9 9 ; Tem“ ;,10k. Monogr. Mam«;
iM i a p a ^ s E n d e b e n , Syat. Beg. Ann. 1777, p. 608; Pallaa, Geograph. Boaao-Aaia, vol. i.
leorarUm parim, Gray, Proo. Zool. Soe. 1867, p. 268; Cat. Camiv. fee. Brit. Mna. 1869 p 10
Fehamelas (P&on),Deamarest. Nouv.Diet.d’ Hiat. Nat. vol,vi. 1816, p. 104 ; i 820f p.
The leopard is not uncommon on the hills along the Sanda valley, whence
i obtained a young specimen in the flesh and many skins. I also observed it in
the neighbourhood of old water-courses behind Tamelone on the Tapeng river in
Upper Burma.
' Swinhoe distinguishes two races of leopard in China; the southern form
by its shorter hair and more regular markings, conforming to the Indian
leopards; and the northern, hy its long shaggy hair and the greater amount of white
about it, by the confused massing together of the black spots and circles on its
body and tail, and by a paler colour, differing considerably from the former. He
K inclined to regard them as distinct species, and the latter, which is found in
the neighbourhood of Pekin and in the north of China generally, and Manchuria
he considers to be identical with the FelU japwiewm, Gray,' which species was’
I ? “ ■ ? “ !■ « “ • B pp- 3 “ 1 1 * B So°-1870, p., 3.
* Ibid. 1872, p. 817. 5 L c. •
H H S i 6 Proo. Zool. Soo. 1863, p. 182,
1 8 6 8 . 7 ^ . ' a ï 18W’ P- * * “ ° a t R M' 1869- P- l b *1 A- M . - E d w » * , I M , J W i f .
w