200 CARNIVORA. 



attacks her on the sand, and turns her on her back to be devoured at 

 his leisure. The shells are often found quite emptied apparently by the 

 claws, with very little injury to the carapace. We cannot sufficiently 

 admire, the power of the jaguar's foot, which clears out the double shells 

 as if t.ie muscular bands had been loosened by a surgical instrument." 

 Hamilton tells a traveler's tale about him: " The jaguar and the alligator 

 are deadly foes; when the jaguar perceives one of these enemies sleeping 

 on a warm sand-bank, he catches him by the under part of the tail, where 

 the soft and most vulnerable parts lie. Usually the alligator is too much 

 astonished to resist or fly ; sometimes, however, he drags his aggressor 

 into the water, drowns him, and eats him up." The jaguar can also catch 

 fish. Rengger saw one plunge his paw into the water and bring out a 

 good-sized " dorado." Unlike the cats in general, the jaguar has no dread 

 of fire ; he has been known to scare the Indians from their meal, and help 

 himself to the meat on the embers. 



Rengger, who landed in Asuncion in Paraguay in 1819, and spent 

 several years there, states that the jaguar is sometimes driven by inun- 

 dations to enter the cities. He was told when he arrived during the 

 floods at Santa Fe, in 1824, that a few days before a Franciscan monk, 

 who was going to sing morning mass, had been eaten by a jaguar at the 

 door of the sacristy. This story is developed by the " Report of the 

 Mexican Boundary Survey " into a thrilling narrative with four victims, 

 and the scene in Santa Fe of New Mexico. 



When the jaguar once tastes human flesh he becomes a confirmed 

 man-eater. It is a comfort to know that he prefers negroes and Indians 

 to white folk ; hence a white sportsman has always to provide himself 

 with a negro attendant, if he is going to sleep in the bush. 



The jaguar is easily tamed, and young ones are often seen in the 

 houses in Paraguay, where they play with the cats and dogs. Captain 

 Inglefield, of the British navy, had on board his ship a jaguar so tame 

 that he could use its body as a pillow. He never gave it raw meat. 



When " Doctor," as it was called, received his daily food, he used to 

 clutch and growl over it like a cat over a mouse, but was sufficiently 

 gentle to permit the meat to be abstracted. It was a very playful animal, 

 and was as mischievous in its sport as any kitten, delighting to find 

 any one who would join in a game of romps, and acting just as a kitten 

 would under similar circumstances. As the animal increased in size and 

 strength, its play began to be rather too rough to be agreeable, and 



