Encounter with a Jaguar ri 
trees, and enlivened the scene a little. I startled a mountain 
hen (Tinamus sp.) which whirred off amongst the bushes. 
The dry slopes of hills are their favourite feeding-places, and 
around Pena Blanca they are rather plentiful; and so, also, 
in their season, are the curassows and penelopes. In the 
lower ground, the footmarks of the tapir are very frequent, 
especially along the small paths, where I have sometimes 
traced them for more than a mile. They are harmless 
beasts. One of our men came across one near Pefia Blanca, 
and attacked and killed it with his knife. He brought in 
the head to me. It was as large as that of a bullock. I 
often tried to track them, but never succeeded in seeing one. 
One day in my eagerness to get near what I believed to be 
one, I rushed into rather unpleasant proximity with a jaguar, 
the “tigre” of the natives. I had just received a fresh 
supply of cartridge cases for my breech-loader, and wishing 
to get some specimens of the small birds that attend the 
armies of the foraging ants, I made up three or four small 
charges of No. 8 shot, putting in only a quarter of an ounce 
of shot into each charge, so as not to destroy their plumage. 
I went back into the forest along a path where I had often 
seen the great footmarks of the tapir. After riding about 
a couple of miles, I heard the notes of some birds, and, dis- 
mounting, tied up my mule, and pushed through the bushes. 
The birds were shy, and in following them I had got about 
fifty yards from the path, to a part where the big trees were 
more clear of brushwood, when I heard a loud hough in a 
thicket towards the left. It was something between a cough 
and a growl, but very loud, and could only have been pro- 
duced by a very large animal. Never having seen or heard 
a jaguar before in the woods, and having often seen the 
footprints of the tapir, I thought it was the latter, and think- 
ing I would have to get very close up to it to do it any damage 
with my little charge of small shot, I ran along towards the 
sound, which was continued at intervals of a few seconds. 
Seeing a large animal moving amongst the thick bushes, only 
a few yards from me, I stopped, when, to my amazement, 
out stalked a great jaguar (like the housekeeper’s rat, the 
largest I had ever seen), in whose jaws I should have been 
nearly as helpless as a mouse in those of a cat. He was 
lashing his tail, at every roar showing his great teeth, and 
