186 THE JAGUAR, OR AMERICAN PANTHER. 



which it was chained, but it had been familiarized 

 to him from the time that it was the size of a small 

 dog.* 



The jaguar inhabits the forests, and seeks its 

 prey by watching, or by openly seizing cattle or 

 horses in the enclosures. It actively pursues smaller 

 animals, and even the monkeys, with all their agi- 

 lity, are not exempted from its attacks. It climbs 

 " freely and expertly." Sonnini tells us, that " he has 

 seen the prints left by the claws of the jaguar on the 

 smooth bark of a tree forty or fifty feet in height, 

 and without branches, and although several slips 

 could be traced, it had at last succeeded in reach 

 ing the veiy top." " Sometimes, after a long silence," 

 says Humboldt, " the ciy of the jaguar comes from 

 the tops of the trees ; and in this case it was follow- 

 ed by the sharp and long whistling of the monkeys, 

 which appeared to flee from the danger that threaten- 

 ed them." But horses, oxen, and sheep, are his fa- 

 vourite seizures, and the depredations committed are 

 sometimes very extensive. Nor is it to be wondered 

 at that the inroads of these creatures are looked up- 

 on with horror, when one is possessed of sufficient 

 strength to carry off a horse ; and their numbers are 

 so prodigious, that 4000 were killed annually in the 

 Spanish Colonies, and 2000 were exported every 

 year from Buenos Ayres' alone, f 



* Wilson's Illustrations, 

 f Humboldt, Pers. Nar. 



