A Mysterious Beast 221 



are affected by a fondness for claiming the first place 

 as the disseminators of scientific information, and there 

 is a weakness now and then manifested by systematists 

 which induces them to attach their names to new genera 

 and species upon slight provocation. I had a friend 

 in the ranks of my entomological correspondents a 

 number of years ago who was thus afflicted. On 

 one occasion it happened that I named and described 

 a new and very beautiful butterfly from Mexico, and 

 when my friend came across the description he turned 

 to a mutual acquaintance and said: 'Thunder! If 

 I had only imagined that there existed such a thing, I 

 should have gone to work at once and named it and pub- 

 lished a description of it, even without seeing it, rather 

 than have let Holland have the credit of doing so.' 

 It is an odd thing that in the calm realms of science the 

 play of human passions should sometimes thus reveal 

 itself. Dr. R. Lehmann-Nitsche from the standpoint of 

 an anthropologist and student of folk-lore came forward 

 and punctured the myth of the so-called Yemisch, 

 showing that the big otter of South America (Lutra 

 felina) and the jaguar had been brought together and 

 made to render joint service in the fabrication of a 

 monster as real as some of the beasts of ancient 

 mythology. The jaguar, "El jaguar del agua r as 

 the animal was called by the Indians, because it has 

 the habit of frequenting the pools where the animals 

 it preys upon come down to drink, was the creature 

 to which most of the tales told by the Indians referred, 

 and Carlos Ameghino had been unfortunate in linking 

 their legends relating to the great cat with the harmless 

 edentate, which was a vegetarian, and had been fed 

 upon hay. It was quite a "merry war, " while it lasted. 

 The literature provoked by the discussion is printed in 



