One of the instances that shows you shouldn't believe or accept everything you read on the internet. The site xrefer.com gives the following when queried about a tigon:
Okay, let's break this one down into parts.
A sterile hybrid cat, {..}
A tigon (or
liger) is
not sterile by
definition.
Evidence suggests that the
male tigons are sterile, but that the
female tigons are not. There is in fact evidence of female tigons producing offspring
1.
{..} resulting from the mating of a lion and a tiger, also called a liger. {..}
No, it is not
also called a liger. There is a difference, namely: a
tigon is the result of the mating of a
female lion (
Panthera leo) and a
male tiger (
Panthera tigris), whereas a
liger is the result of a mating between a
male lion and a
female tiger.
{..} This can only happen in captivity, {..}
Just about nearly true. The problem is that it
could happen in the
wild, but the odds are very
remote. It probably never has happened outside of captivity, so I'll go along with this part. Albeit reluctantly.
{..} because lions and tigers naturally inhabit different continents.
Err, no. In
India both tigers and lions are found, specifically in and around the
Gir National Park and Lion Sanctuary.
Rather a regular-sized feline
In contrast to ligers, the tigon is somewhat smaller than its biggest
parent species, the tiger. Where
interbreeding leads to
giants in ligers, it leads to
dwarfs
2 in tigons. Why this is, is not exactly clear.
Fifty-fifty, but not exactly
As one would expect, tigons
exhibit traits and
characteristics of both tigers and lions. However, the lion characteristics tend to
dominate. There are
differences between
individuals, though.
A tigon (and a liger, too) often has the typical lion
tan colouring, run through with faint
stripes and
spots. The stripes are obviously from the tiger
parentage, but the spots come from the lion parentage. Lion cubs are born with spots, which disappear (or probably more accurately: become less visible) when they grow up
3.
The
vocabulary of tigons is a
combination of lion and tiger sounds, and they may
roar like a lion and
chuff like a tiger.
Sources:
http://www.loadstar.prometeus.net/tiger/tigon.html
http://www.loadstar.prometeus.net/tiger/hybrids.html
http://www.shambala.org/Animals/patrick.htm
http://www.loadstar.prometeus.net/tiger/hybrids.html
1 See the picture and text at the following URL: http://www.loadstar.prometeus.net/tiger/tigon.html - sadly, not available anymore...
2 That's a bit of an exaggeration there, but tigons are noticeably smaller than tigers
3 Okay, you caught me. But this is plagiarism of myself, so back off.