166 MAMMALIA— JAGUAK. 



the jaguar, on the contrary, is marked by one or two regular longitudinal 

 lines of broad, elongated deep black patches, sometimes extending severa. 

 inches in length, and occasionally forming an almost continuous band from 

 between the shoulders to the tail. The black rings towards the tip of the 

 latter are also more completely circular than in the leopard." 



The jaguar is a solitary animal, residing in forests, especially near large 

 rivers. He is an excellent swimmer. D'Azara tells us, partly from per* 

 sonal observation, that, after a jaguar had destroyed a horse, he dragged 

 the body sixty paces, and then swam with it over a broad and deep river. 

 He is equally expert at climbing. "I have seen," says M. Sonini, "in the 

 forests of Guiana, the prints left by the claws of the jaguar on the smooth 

 bark of a tree from forty to fifty feet in height, measuring about a foot and 

 a half in circumference, and clothed with branches near its summit alone. 

 It was easy to follow, with the eye, the efforts which the animal had made 

 to reach the branches : although his talons had been thrust deeply into the 

 body of the tree, he had met with several slips, but he had always recovered 

 his ground, and, attracted no doubt by some favorite object of prey, had at 

 length succeeded in gaining the very top.'' 



The jaguar lies in ambush for his prey, on which he pounces suddenly, 

 and his great muscular strength enables him instantly to bear it to the 

 ground. Man he does not often attack, and never but by stealth. While 

 M. Sonini was travelling in Guiana, his party was closely dogged for three 

 nights by one of these animals, which eluded all their attempts to shoot it, 

 and would, doubtless, have carried off any individual who might have un- 

 guardedly exposed himself. 



Ferocious as he is in his wild state, the jaguar, Avhen captive, becomes 

 tame and even mild, and is particularly fond of licking the hands of those 

 with whom he is familiar. 



The taking of the jaguar forms a portion of the warlike features distin- 

 guishing the Indians of South America, particularly the Llaneros, or men 

 of the plains. One inducement a Llanero has in pursuing the jaguar, is the 

 honor of the feat — for the value of its skin and the little depredations it 

 commits on the flocks, would never, I apprehend, (says a late traveller in 

 South America,) induce him to risk a single combat with such fierce 

 animals; but there is a stronger stimulus, viz. that killing seven jaguars, 

 or six tigers, will give him the title of guapo, or warrior, and the privilege 

 of choosing the fattest virgin in the tribe, for his companion; for with them, 

 the lady who is most en bon point, is most beautiful. This alone is a 

 sufficient inducement ; and they endeavor to complete their task as early 

 as the age of seventeen. At the approach of the breeding season, they 

 watch with great assiduity the battles that take place between the male and 

 the female, as this is a sure indication of her littering, not wishing to have 

 the male know where she deposits the cubs, as some naturalists assert tha 1 

 he eats them ; others, that he hugs them to death. However this be, sht 



