Pupil round[1]. Hair of the cheeks from behind the ears round the sides of the neck considerably lengthened in adult males, so as to form a ruff. Hair of body short and close (but varying in length somewhat with the season). Tail about half the length of the head and body, tapering gradually, not tufted at the end. Tail vertebrae 22 to 26.
The skull is very massive and heavy, the zygomatic arches excessively wide and strong, and the crests for attachment of the muscles highly developed. On an average the skull is even larger, wider, and more massive than that of the lion. The facial surface is considerably more convex, the maxillary bones terminate posteriorly between the orbits in front of the nasals, and the lower surface of the presphenoid in the roof of the posterior nares is much broader than in the lion, and is generally raised into a ridge along the middle. The lower surface of the mandible is nearly straight to near the angle, then slightly concave. Consequently the skull of a tiger, with the lower jaw attached, rests firmly on a flat surface, whilst the posterior portion of the skull nowhere touches the surface. This is not the case with any other great feline, except perhaps the jaguar.
Colour. Ground-colour, above and on the sides, varying from pale rufous to brownish yellow, below white, striped transversely with black throughout the head and body. The tail is marked with black rings. Ears black outside, with a large white spot on each. The ground-colour is much more rufous in some animals than ia others, and forest tigers are probably darker and redder than those inhabiting the thin jungles of Central and Southern India. Young animals, too, are more brightly coloured than old. The young are born striped. Both black and albino tigers have been met with, though both are very rare. Mr. C. T. Buckland tells me that he once saw a black tiger that had been shot near Chittagong; whilst an albino tiger was exhibited in London, at Exeter Change, early in the century, and figured by Griffith[2].
Dimensions. Adult males measure 5½ to 6½ feet from nose to insertion of tail, the tail being about 3 feet long. In a male 9 feet 4 inches long, measured by Tickell, the head was 16 inches, neck 12, body 4 feet, tail 3 feet 2 inches. Females measure about 5 to 5½ feet from nose to rump. The height at the shoulder is about 3 feet to 3 feet 6 inches. The usual measurement of tigers by sportsmen is from the nose over the curves of the head and back and along the tail to the tip. Thus measured full-grown tigers are generally 9 to 10 feet long, tigresses 8 to 9; but tigers have been killed 12 feet in length, and I myself shot an apparently full-grown tigress only 7 feet 6 inches long, and another specimen that had cubs with her measured only 7 feet 8 inches[3]. The skull
- ↑ Jerdon is in error in stating that the pupil is vertical.
- ↑ Griffith's 'Cuvier,' ii, p. 444.
- ↑ A very good account of the measurements of tigers is given in Sterndale's 'Mammalia of India,' pp. 162, 527. See also Sir J. Fayrer, 'Nature,' June 27th, 1878, xviii, p. 219. By both tigers measuring over 12 feet are recorded. Tickell, in his MS. notes, states that he once saw a tiger that measured 11 feet 9 inches.
