2S THE JAGUAR. 



a shout alone. It watches secretly for its prey, and dart- 

 ing upon it unawares, it strikes the animal to the ground, 

 and afterwards carries it away to a place of safety, where 

 it devours it at leisure. He often attacks cows and horses, 

 and, when driven by hunger, will assail man, but is alarmed 

 at any show of resistance, and has a great dread of fires, 

 which are sometimes lighted to keep it off. He is able to 

 overthrow the strongest of the wild boars by a. single stroke 

 of his paw. Few of the American animals are, in point of 

 strength, a match for the Jaguar, except the enormous ser- 

 pents which exist in the savannahs ; and these, by entwin- 

 ing themselves round his body, are able to crush and suffo- 

 cate him. It is very expert at climbing trees, fastening its 

 sharp claws into the bark as it ascends ; and it is an expert 

 swimmer. It inhabits thick forests, and sometimes destroys 

 cows and horses. It also feeds on fish, which it entices to 

 the surface bv its saliva, and then knocks them out of the 



/ 



water with its paw. The Spaniards, and even the native 

 Indians, sometimes hunt the Jaguar for sport. It frequently 

 measures four or five feet from the nose to the root of the 

 tail. 



It has sometimes been asserted that the Jaguar is an in- 

 dolent animal, but this is by no means the case. On the 

 contrary, he frequently attacks dogs, and oftentimes com- 

 mits great destruction among flocks ; and he is, in the desert, 

 formidable even to man. The power which these animals 

 have of ascending trees is very remarkable. M. Lonini 

 states that he has seen the impressions of the talons of the Ja- 

 guar on the smooth bark of trees between forty and fifty feet 

 in height, which had not a single branch except on the top. 



