HEADWATERS OF THE PARAGUAY 123 



killed horses and full-grown cows, but not bulls. The 

 pumas killed the calves. The others killed an occasional 

 very young calf, but ordinarily only sheep, little pigs, and 

 chickens. There was one black jaguar-skin; melanism is 

 much more common among jaguars than pumas, although 

 once Miller saw a black puma that had been killed by In- 

 dians. The patterns of the jaguar-skins, and even more of 

 the ocelot-skins, showed wide variation, no two being alike. 

 The pumas were for the most part bright red, but some 

 were reddish gray, there being much the same dichroma- 

 tism that I found among their Colorado kinsfolk. The 

 jaguarundis were dark brownish gray. All these animals, 

 the spotted jaguars and ocelots, the monochrome black 

 jaguars, red pumas, and dark-gray jaguarundis, were killed 

 in the same locality, with the same environment. A glance 

 at the skins and a moment's serious thought would have 

 been enough to show any sincere thinker that in these 

 cats the coloration pattern, whether concealing or reveal- 

 ing, is of no consequence one way or the other as a sur- 

 vival factor. The spotted patterns conferred no benefit as 

 compared with the nearly or quite monochrome blacks, 

 reds, and dark grays. The bodily condition of the various 

 beasts was equally good, showing that their success in life, 

 that is, their ability to catch their prey, was unaffected 

 by their several color schemes. Except white, there is no 

 color so conspicuously advertising as black; yet the black 

 jaguar had been a fine, well-fed, powerful beast. The 

 spotted patterns in the forests, and perhaps even in the 

 marshes which the jaguars so frequently traversed, are 

 probably a shade less conspicuous than the monochrome 

 red and gray, but the puma and jaguarundi are just as 



