188 THE JAGUAR. OR AMERICAN PANTHER. 



ties. Humboldt relates, " We were shewn large 

 shells of turtles emptied by the jaguars. These ani- 

 mals follow the arraus towards the beaches, when 

 the laying of eggs is to take place. They surprize 

 them on the sand ; and in order to devour them at 

 their ease, turn them in such a manner that the un- 

 der shell is uppermost. In this situation the turtles 

 cannot rise ; and as the jaguar turns many more 

 than he can eat in one night, the Indians often avail 

 themselves of his cunning and malignant avidity. 

 When we reflect on the difficulty that the naturalist 

 finds in getting out the body, without separating the 

 upper and under shells, we cannot enough admire 

 the suppleness of the tiger's paw, which empties the 

 double armour of the arraus, as if the adhering 

 parts of the muscles had been cut by means of a sur- 

 gical instrument. The jaguar pursues the turtle 

 quite into the water, when not very deep. It even 

 digs up the eggs ; and, together with the crocodile, 

 the herons, and the gallinago vulture, is the most 

 cruel enemy of the little turtles recently hatched."* 



Like their congeners, they do not attack man 

 when unannoyed, but are neither very easily scared 

 from their prey, nor do they readily flee from his ap- 

 proach. They will often follow travellers, Humboldt 

 remarks, even when they will not attack them, skirt- 

 ing the road, and appearing only at intervals among 

 the bushes ;f and during his long abode in Ame- 

 rica, the same traveller heard or' only one example of 



Humboldt, Pers. Nar. iv. p. 492 f Ib. iv. p. 176. 



