THE JAGUAR 161 



The capuchins or ring-tailed monkeys, and the 

 vociferous howlers, were the ones we met with most 

 frequently during our rambles. On more than one 

 occasion I observed capuchins perform an acrobatic feat 

 in the style of the leaping somersaults from the spring- 

 board one sees at a circus. If a troop of these monkeys 

 while travelling through the tree-tops came to a spot 

 where the trees were some distance apart, they would run 

 out to the end of some thin, pliable, but strong branch, 

 and leap up and down until they caused it to sway 

 violently : then, taking advantage of the momentum of 

 the swinging branch they v/ould clear the intervening 

 distance one after the other, a feat they would have been 

 unable to perform from a stationary object. 



We never met with any of the larger carnivora in the 

 vicinity of La Prision, although I learnt from the people 

 of the place that they suffer from time to time from the 

 depredations of jaguars. These animals are particularly 

 destructive where there are pigs, donkeys, and dogs. The 

 jaguar appears to have either a strong aversion for the dog 

 or a great liking for his flesh. 



In our daily excursions we were sure to visit one of 

 the lajas. I always experienced a feeling of pleasure, or 

 rather of relief, when, after having tramped for hours 

 through the twilight of the forest, we would reach some 

 open space gladdened by the brightness of the sun. 

 These lajas and the rocky islands of the rapids appear 

 to be excrescences of one immense substratum of granite 

 of which they are the highest points. Where the rock is 



for Blood in Relation to Zoological Classification.' By George H. F. Nutall, 

 M.A., M.D., Ph.B., University Lectui-er in Bactei-iology and Preventive 

 Medicine, Cambridge. Communicated by Sir M. Foster, K.C.B., Sec. R.S. 

 Received November 2; read November 21, 1901. 



M 



