398 HABITS OF THE JAGUAR CHAP. 
The largest of American Cats is the Jaguar, #. onca. This is 
an arboreal creature with a long, heavy body and short limbs. 
Its pelage is much like that of the Leopard, but the spots are 
larger and more definitely arranged in groups. There are a 
number of distinct rows of spots. The length of the body alone 
is not greater than 4 feet. They prey very largely on the 
Jaguar. Felis onca. x}. 
Fic. 197. 
Capybara, and upon turtles, which they surprise upon the sand 
when about to lay their eggs; the reptiles are turned upon their 
backs, so as to be incapable of escaping, and the Jaguar then 
easily devours them. The Jaguar will even pursue the turtle 
into the water, and will devour its eggs and the newly-hatched 
young. 
The Ocelot is another spotted American Cat. F. pardalis! 
ranges from Arkansas in North America southwards, its range 
corresponding with that of the Jaguar. Although small for 
one of the “larger cats,” the Ocelot inspired with considerable 
respect Captain Dampier, who remarked of it: “The Tigre-cat 
is about the bigness of a bull-dog, with short truss, body shaped 
much like a mastiff, but in all things else, its head, the colour 
of its hair, the manner of its preying, much resembling the 
1 For an account of this and of other mammals which occur in Central America, 
see Alston in Messrs. Godman and Salvin’s Biologia Centrali- Americana, 1879- 
1882. 
