FELID.-E. 



FEL1D/E. 



furnishing an index to the habits and vital energy of this tribe of 

 active and ferocious quadrupeds. That the Jaguar is an animal of 

 great power and frequently of a daring disposition there can be no 

 doubt ; but the balance of the evidence is against its equalling, if not 

 exceeding, the royal tiger of the east in ferocity. Of its power 

 D'Azara gives the following anecdote. A Jaguar had struck down a 

 horse; and D'Azara gave instructions that the latter should be drawn 

 within musket-shot of a tree wherein he intended to pass the night, 

 in expectation that the Jaguar would return for his prey. While 

 D'Azara was gone to prepare himself, the Jaguar returned from the 

 opposite side of a river broad and deep, seized the horse in its mouth, 

 drew it to the water some 60 paces, swam across the river with it, 

 landed it, and drew it into a wood hard by. All this was witnessed by 

 the person whom D'Azara had placed in concealment to watch till 

 his return. 



Jaguar (Felit Oafa). 



The Jaguar is a most expert climber. Sonnini saw the scratches 

 left by the claws of one on the smooth bark of a tree some 40 feet 

 high without branches. He traced the marks of several slips made 

 by the climber, but the animal hud at last reached the top. H umbul.lt 

 heard the Jaguar's yell from the tops of the trees followed by the 

 sharp shrill long whistle of the terrified monkeys, as they seemed to 

 flee. None of the living quadrumanes or quadrupeds seem to come 

 amiss to it, and birds and fish, which last it is said to take in shallows, 

 are sacrificed to its voracious appetite. The Jaguars will openly seize 

 cattle, horses, and sheep from the enclosures ; and the havoc made 

 by them is great, as will be easily imagined when we learn from 

 Humboldt that their numbers are such that 4000 were killed annually 

 in the Spanish colonies, and 2000 were exported every year from Buenos 

 Ayres only. Nor are the reptiles free from its attacks. The shells 

 of turtles were pointed out to Humboldt as having been emptied of 

 their contents by the Jaguar, which, it seems, watches them as they 

 come to the sandy beeches to lay their egga, rushes on them, and 

 turn* them on their backs. He then insinuates his paw between the 

 shells, and scoops out the contents as clean as if a surgeon's knife 

 had been employed. Aa the beast turns many more than he can 

 devour at one meal, the Indians often profit by his dextrous 

 cunning. He will, it is stated, pursue this persecuted race into 

 the water where it is not very deep, and will dig up and devour 

 tli- eggs. 



With all this the Jaguar does not seem to be very dangerous to 

 man, when boldly confronted, though D'Azara records frequent 

 instances of his attacking the lord of the creation. The Jaguar will 

 indeed often follow travellers, according to Sonnini and Humboldt, 

 but the latter celebrated naturalist and observer only heard of one 

 instance where a Llanero was found torn in his hammock, and that 

 happened opposite the Island of Achaguas. He relates, on the other 

 hand, a story of two Indian children, a girl and a boy, the one about 

 seven, and the other nine years old, who were at play on the out- 

 skirts of a village, about two o'clock in the afternoon, when a large 

 Jaguar came out of the woods bounding towards them playfully, his 

 head down and his back arched, like a cat. He approached the boy, 

 who was not sensible of his danger, and began to play with him, till 

 at last the Jaguar struck him so hard on the head with his paw as to 

 draw blood, whereupon the little girl struck him smartly with a 

 Htiiall switch, and lie was bounding back not at all irritated, when the 

 Indians, alarmed by the cries of the girl, came up. 



When Mr. Waterton (' Wanderings') was encamped on the banks 

 of the Kmequibo, lie was visited by one of these prowlers. " When- 



SAT. HIST. HIV. Vol.. II. 



ever the fire got low the Jaguar came a little nearer ; and when the 

 Indian renewed it, he retired abruptly ; sometimes he would come 

 within twenty yards, and then, we had a view of him, sitting on his hind 

 legs like a dog ; sometimes he moved slowly to and fro ; and at other 

 times we could hear him mend his pace, as if impatient. At last the 

 Indian, not relishing the idea of having such company, set up a most 

 tremendous yell. The Jaguar bounded off like a race-horse, and 

 returned no more. It appeared by the print of his feet next morning, 

 that he was a full grown one." 



The Jaguar is said to make its attacks on quadrupeds by springing 

 upon the neck of his prey ; then placing one of his paws upon the 

 back of its head, while he turns round the muzzle with the other, 

 he dislocates the neck and deprives it of life. 



He, in his turn, falls a victim to man. The Spaniards and Indians 

 hunt him in various ways. Sometimes he is driven by dogs ' to tree," 

 in which case he is despatched with the musket or lance ; sometimes 

 the pack force him among the bushes, and then is exhibited, some- 

 times a daring feat. A single Indian, with his left arm enveloped in 

 a sheep-skin, and with a 5-feet lance in his right, goes boldly in to 

 him. The hunter parries the onset of the furious beast with his 

 shielded arm, and at the same time deals him such a thrust with his 

 lance as seldom requires repetition. The lasso is also used with the 

 best effect upon the plains. 



There is a black variety of the Jaguar, Le Jaguar Noir of the 

 French, Fdii nigra of Erxleben, and probably the Jaguarete of 

 Marcgrave. 



This seems to have been the animal noticed by Lieutenat Maw 11. N., 

 (' Journal of a Passage from the Pacific to the Atlantic," 8vo., London, 

 1829), at Para, as a ' black on9a, or tiger.' It had been procured up 

 the rivers by Mr. Campbell, and, when Mr. Maw saw it, was a 

 formidable animal. " I am not sure," says that gentleman, " that it 

 had the length of liinb of a Bengal Tiger, but it was thicker, and, 

 I think, it would have weighed more. When lying down, there 

 appeared to be scarcely any leg, but its thigh was like an immense 

 ham." Lieutenant Maw relates some amusing anecdotes about this 

 animal, for which we refer the reader to his interesting book. 



IV. THE LYNXES. 



The name of Lynxes is applied by zoologists to a subdivision of 

 the great genus Fdii, or Cats, well marked externally, and elevated 

 by Ur. Gray to the rank of a genus, under the appellation of Lyueut. 



There does not appear to be any considerable difference between 

 the organisation of the Lynxes and that of the other Cats ; but it is 

 extremely probable that there is some modification about the bones 

 of the tongue, and the organ of the voice generally, to produce the 

 peculiarly powerful noise analogous to what is called ' spitting ' and 

 ' swearing ' in the domestic cat. 



Linnaeus, in his last edition of the ' Systema Naturao," records but 

 one speciea, P. Lynx, to which he assigns the woods and deserts of 

 Europe and Canada as localities. This was probably the European 

 Lynx, and the descriptions may have been founded on Lynxes from 

 Canada as well as Europe. 



Omelin, in his edition, adds three other species, F. Chans, F. Caracal, 

 and P. rufa ; and gives two varieties of F. Lynx, with Europe, 

 America, Northern Asia, and even Japan, as the habitations. 



Pennant notices seven species of Lynxes the Mountain Lynx, 

 Cat-a-Mouutain of Ray (North America), the Serval, the Lynx, the 

 Bay Lynx, the Caspian Lynx, the Persian Lynx, and the Libyan 

 Lynx. He states that the third inhabits the vast forests of the north 

 of Europe, Asia, and America; "not India, though poets have 

 harnessed them to the chariot of Bacchus, in his conquest of that 

 country." The fourth, he says, is an inhabitant of the inner parts 

 of the province (now the state) of New York. To the fifth he 

 assigns the " reeds and woods in the marshy parts that border on the 

 western sides of the Caspian Sea, particularly about the Castle Kislar, 

 on the river Terek," and the Persian provinces of Ghilau and 

 Mazanderan ; adding that it is frequent about the mouth of the Kur, 

 the ancient Cyrus. Persia, India, and Barbary are the countries 

 which he states to be the localities of the sixth; and Libya -111.1 

 Barbary are mentioned by him as the countries of the seventh. !t 

 is doubtful what animals Pennant meant to designate xiuder .-">i: > of 

 these names. The Serval is not considered to be a Lynx. 



Cuvier observes that there are known in commerce, I'n.k-r tit.- 

 name of Loups Cerviers (Lupus cenariua), four or five sorts <pf 

 Lynxes, which had long been confounded by naturalists, and whone. 

 specific limits were not perhaps well fixed when he wrute. We shall 

 proceed to notice the arrangement of M. Temminck, ud then return 

 to observe what part of it is adopted by Cuvier. 



M. Temminck gives the following as species : 



1. F. cervaria; described as nearly equalling a wolf in size, and 

 possibly the Kattlo of Linnaeus nnd tho Swedes; but it has lx-> n 

 remarked that no skins of it are contained in the cargoes that arrive 

 from the Baltic. In comm;ce the skins of F. cervaria, are said ' 

 be only obtained from the markets of Moscow, to which they an- 

 brought from the provinces of Asia, It is considered as probitb! 

 that this species may have been confounded, under the name of tb- 

 Canadian Lynx, with 



2. P. borcalit, which is intermediate in size between the fox uin 



3 E 



