374- Dr. Traill on American Animals of' the Genus Felis. 



mana, and dragged it to a considerable distance. " The groans 

 of the dying horse," says Humboldt, " awoke the slaves of the 

 farm, who went out armed with lances and cutlasses. The 

 animal continued on its prey, awaited their approach with 

 firmness, and fell only after a long and obstinate resistance. 

 This fact, and a great many others, verified on the spot, prove 

 that the great jaguar of Terra Firma, like the jaguaret of Pa- 

 raguay, and the real tiger of Asia, does not flee from man, 

 when it is dared to close combat, and when it is not alarmed 

 by the great number of its assailants. Naturalists are now 

 agreed, that BufFon was entirely mistaken with respect to the 

 largest of the feline genus of America. What that celebrated 

 writer says of the cowardly tigers of the New Continent re- 

 lates to the small ocelots ; and we shall shortly see, that on 

 the Orinoko the real jaguar of America sometimes leaps mto 

 the water to attack the Indians in their canoes." 



I am personally acquainted with gentlemen who have hunted 

 the jaguaret in Paraguay, and who describe it as a very cou- 

 rageous and powerful animal, of great activity, and highly 

 dangerous when at bay. Both this species and the puma are 

 rendered moi'e formidable by the facility with which they can 

 ascend trees. I have been assured by several friends, who 

 have repeatedly hunted the tiger in India, that even this 

 " most beautiful and cruel of beasts of prey," as it is termed 

 by Linnaeus, generally endeavours to escape from the huntei's, 

 unless hard pressed, or surprised in a situation from which re- 

 treat is difficidt ; and one gentleman informed me, that, on a 

 shooting excursion, to his great horror he found himself with- 

 out a companion in a small field, in which he espied a tiger 

 watching him ; that, finding retreat impossible, he advanced 

 against the animal firmly, when it slowly retired, until he had 

 an opportunity' of dispatching it with his rifle. 



Such instances show that there is no striking difference be- 

 tween the habits and courage of the beasts of prey of the Old 

 and New Continents, as imagined by Buffbn. 



While naturalists have been so unjust to the character of 

 the American animals of this genus, the forms of these quar 

 drupeds have not been more fortunately delineated in our en- 

 gravings. For instance ; the figure of the black tiger in Buf- 

 tbn, and in his copyist Shaw, is so wretchedly drawn, and its 

 limbs are so distorted, that not a trace of the genuine form is 

 preserved ; but it is considerably better given in the respectable 

 work of Pennant. The figui'es of the jaguar and puma, in 

 both the former works, are inaccurate in many respects, espe- 

 cially in the form of the heads, and in giving no idea of the 



fierce 



