

FELINES OF THE NEW WORLD. 



175 



tation. It is usually caught in traps. The 

 coarse reddish-yellow fur, over which small 

 brown spots are distributed, is little esteemed 

 by us, but among the neg.roes of the interior 

 of Africa is so highly valued, that the negro 

 princes wear it as a mark of their high dignity, 



as ermine was formerly worn by the sove- 

 reigns of Europe. 



Felines of the New World. 



The felines distributed over the whole of 

 the mainland of America form in a certain 





Kig. 80. The Serval (Ft Us Serval). 



measure parallel series to those of the Old 

 World, but while the striped or uniformly 

 coloured felines, such as the tiger and lion, 

 in the Old World surpass the others in size 

 and strength, the chief role belongs in the 

 western hemisphere to the spotted species. 



The Jaguar (Felts onca) attains about the 

 size of a tiger, but is not so long or so 

 massive in form, and has shorter legs. 



The jaguar is in every respect a large 

 panther, whose range extends over the whole 

 of South America and even part of North 

 America as far as Texas and South Cali- 

 fornia. Its thick, soft, silky fur is distinguished 

 from that of the panthers of the Old World 

 by the presence of pretty large ring-shaped 

 spots on the sides, shoulders, and thighs, 

 with a few small black points in the centre 



of the ring, which is rose-red in its ground- 

 colour. 



The general colour of the whole fur varies 

 very greatly from yellowish-white to black, 

 but no special homes can be assigned to 

 these varieties. Differently coloured young 

 ones are often found in the same brood. 



Plate XI represents the jaguar crawling 

 on an overthrown tree, on which it is on the 

 look out for a capybara, a large South 

 American rodent, of whose flesh it is said to 

 be peculiarly fond. The jaguar, however, 

 like the tiger and panther, contents itself 

 with any kind of food and any place of abode. 

 It is found on the treeless Pampas of the 

 Argentine Confederation, where it can hide 

 itself only in the tall grass, and is found no less 

 in the densest primeval forests of Brazil. But 



