96 PUMAS AND JAGUARS 



field, where fourteen pigs lay dead or dying, but nothing 

 was to be seen of the jaguar. Where could he be? was 

 the question they asked each other, and the riddle was 

 only guessed when one of the men, who was a Portuguese, 

 picked up a bit of his skin. Whether he had been torn 

 and eaten on the spot, or whether he had been carried off 

 piecemeal to be enjoyed at home, was never known. 

 Anyhow the men took one of the dead pigs back to the 

 camp, and cooked it for supper. 



Belt, the Naturalist, when travelling in Nicaragua, 

 had some interesting encounters with jaguars, which 

 might have ended badly for him. One day he had gone 

 in search of some small birds that feed on foraging ants, 

 and hearing their notes, he tied his mule to a tree, and 

 went in search of them, as he was very anxious to obtain 

 a specimen. He had only with him a gun loaded with 

 very small shot, and holding this he pushed through the 

 bushes to the thicket from which the birds' song came. 



But birds are restless creatures, and these must have 

 fluttered from tree to tree, so that Belt had wandered a 

 good way from the path, and had reached a space where 

 the brushwood was thin, and the trees large and tall, 

 when he heard a sound between a cough and a growl 

 from the bushes on his left. He thought it was a tapir, 

 and ran quickly towards it, as he knew that, with such 

 small shot, he would have to be very close before he 

 fired. Then, just in front of him, the bushes swayed, 

 and out came a huge jaguar, lashing its tail and roaring 

 with anger. 



It was not easy to tell what had excited it so, for it 

 had not seen Belt, and there was no animal in sight ; but 

 it crossed the clearing twenty yards in front of Belt and 

 dashed on. The Naturalist was quite unarmed, except for 

 his one little gun, and knelt down to steady his aim, in 

 case he might have to fire at close quarters. The slight 

 rustling attracted the attention of the jaguar, who paused 

 for a moment, and then turned round. It lowered its 



