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Show 1900.] MAMMALS OF SIAM AND THE MALAY PENINSULA. 323 no. 25, p. 57) says it " appears to be widely distributed, especially the low country, disappearing in the hills." In Perak tigers occur from sea-level to the mountain jungles ; Wray (J. S. B. E. A. S. 1890, no. 21, pp. 129, 138, 146) mentions them in the Larut Hills at over 4000 feet, and in the Batang Padang mountains at 6700 feet above sea-level. Round the town of Taiping, the capital of Perak, tigers are particularly numerous, living largely on the pigs kept by the Chinese. I have seen, a few hours after the occurrence, where a tiger burst through the wall of a house and carried off a pig, to the horror of a Chinaman who was in the room at the time. In Selangor also the tiger is over-plentiful. Kelsall (J. S. B. R. A. S. 1894, no. 26, p. 16) says they are "reported to be plentiful everywhere (in the State of Johore), especially on the Indau and at Batu Pahat." Dr. Wilson (Principal Medical Officer, Johore) informed m e that about 1889 a tiger was caught at Muar which measured 12 feet from nose to tip of tail. In Siam the tiger apparently is not found in the delta of the Menam, near Bangkok, nor in the valley of the Bangpakong, but from all accounts they are numerous in the Dong Phya Fai, especially at Pakchom on the Korat side. Habits. Some idea of the Malay tiger and its ways may be gathered from the following well-written accounts :- A. R. Wallace, ' Malay Archipelago,' p. 18 (1869). H. N . Ridley, " Mammals Malay Peninsula," Nat. Science, vol. vi. pp. 89-91 (1895). F. A. Swettenham, ' Malay Sketches,' pp. 12-18 (1896). H. Clifford,' East Coast Etchings,' pp. 142-154 (1896). Distribution. Central and South-eastern Continental Asia and Sumatra and Java. 17. FELIS PARDUS L. The Leopard or Panther. Felis leopardus, Cantor, p. 35. Felis pardus, Blanf. Faun. Ind., M a m m . p. 67; Eidley, M a m m . Malay Pen., Nat. Science, vol. vi. 1895, p. 91. Spotted Variety: " Rimau bintang" (Starred Tiger) of the Malays. Black Variety: " Rimau kumbang " (Black-beetle Tiger) of the Malays. " Rimau akar " (Tiger of the Lianas) according to Ridley. Cantor says : " The leopards of the Malayan Peninsula appear to attain to a larger size, and to be more ferocious, than is generally the case in India. Instances of their having killed and carried off Malays are on record." Ridley, on the other hand, states : " It is quite harmless to man unless wounded The more slender form, commonly called the leopard in opposition to the short thick panther, is said to occur in the Peninsula;" and also (J. S. B. R. A. S. 1894, no. 25, p. 57): " There are two distinct forms, one, which includes the black panther, being much more thick-set and heavy-looking than the typical leopard, and the spots are usually rings and not rosettes as in that animal." |