154 



MAMMALS OF AMERICA 



Little is known of the breeding habits of the 

 Ocelot. The young are born in late October 

 or early November, and there are usually two 

 kittens at a birth. In this connection Mr. Lacey 

 supplies the following useful information : " I 

 have never had the luck to find any kittens, but 

 a friend of mine ran a female into a cave with 



his hounds and killed her: then the dogs went 

 into the cave and brought out two kittens a few 

 weeks old. This was in November. Another of 

 my neighbors killed a female and two kittens in a 

 cave near here. This was also in November, and 

 when captured the kittens had not yet got their 

 eyes open." 



JAGUARONDI 

 Fells jaguarondi Fischer 



Other Name. — Yagourondi. 



General Description. — A little smaller in size tlian 

 the Ocelot, with even more slender body. Body elon- 

 gate : legs short ; tail as long as body with head ; general 

 color grizzled brownish-gray ; a sinuous cat with some- 

 what the appearance of a large member of the Weasel 

 tribe. 



Dental Formula. — Incisors, — — ; 



,1—3 



30. 



Canines, 



Premolars, - — -; Molars, - — ^- - 

 2 — 2 ' I — I 



Pelage. — Sexes similar and no seasonal variation. 



General color brownish-gray with hairs annulated and 



black-tipped, the whole giving a somewhat grizzled 



appearance, with brown body color ; tail like body or 



sometimes black with rufous tinge, and extreme tips 



of hair white. 



This little-known American Cat is an inhabi- 

 tant of s(juthern Texas, ranging thence south- 

 ward to Paraguay, east of the Andes ^Mountains. 

 In appearance it is not unlike an Otter ; and 

 some individuals of the species are of a grizzled 

 brownish-gray, the hairs being black-tipped. 

 A closely allied species, the Eyra, a rich brown- 

 ish-red animal, with long and slender body and 

 a very long tail, is found around the Mexican 

 border. These species are without streaks or 

 spots, and are commonly spoken of as the Gray 

 and Red Cats. Of these differences in color IMr. 

 Vernon Bailey says ( in " .\ Biological Survey of 

 Texas") : "A study of five skins and skulls of 

 the Red Cats and six of the Gray from southern 

 Texas and eastern Mexico, reveals no constant 

 difference other than color. The striking coinci- 

 dence of range and similarity of habits, as well 

 as of structure, of the Red and Gray Cats 

 strengthens the evidence tending to show that 

 these supposedly distinct species present onlv 

 another case of dichromatism, comparable to 

 the Black and Cinnamon Bear and the red and 

 gray phases of the screech owl."' 



Concerning the habits of these animals Mr. 

 B. F. Armstrong says : " These Cats inhabit the 



Measurements. — Length, 30 inches ; tail, 14 inches. 



Range. — South of the United States, but occasionally 

 crossing the Rio Grande into Texas. 



Food. — Small mammals and birds. 



Remarks. — Like the Ocelot and the Jaguar, the 

 Jaguarondi is not a typical North American mammal 

 if we consider the Rio Grande as a southern limit. 

 There is but the one form of this animal known to 

 reach Texas, although in its southern distribution it is 

 sulidivided into several varieties. Some authorities hold 

 that the Eyra, the FcUs eyra of other authors, is a 

 color phase of the Jaguarondi. Certain it is that the 

 Eyra is very similar to the Jaguarondi, and differs from 

 it only in being a rich brownish red instead of a grizzled 

 l)rownish-gray, the proportion of the two animals being 

 the same. There are no related species in this country. 



densest thickets where the timber (mesquite) 

 is not very high, but the underbrush — catsclaw 

 and granjeno — is very thick and impenetrable 

 for any large-sized animal. Their food is mice, 

 rats, birds and rabbits. Their slender bodies and 

 agile movements enable them to capture their 

 ])rey in the thickest of places. They climb trees, 

 as I have shot them out of trees at night by 

 ' shining their eyes ' while Deer hunting. I 

 capture them by burying traps at intervals along 

 the trails that run through these thick places. I 

 don't think they have any regular time for 

 breeding, as I have seen young in both summer 

 and winter, born probably in .\ugust and March. 

 They move around a good deal in daytime, as 

 I have often seen them come down to a pond 

 to drink at midday, and seen them dart through 

 the brush in daytime. They are exceedingly 

 hard to tame." 



In the New York Zoological Park there is a 

 fine specimen of the Jaguarondi, which often 

 passes unrecognized : for, as Dr. Hornaday says, 

 " it is so seldom seen in captivity that compara- 

 tivelv few persons north of the Rio Grande are 

 aware of its existence." 



