692 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



our continent, and yet a drove of peccaries will master one, if no trees are 

 near, tearing it to pieces in their savage way. In its habits the jaguar 

 differs but little from the other large cats. It feeds on whatever of fortune 

 may come in its way, — deer, monkeys, peccaries, squirrels, and the huge 

 and clumsy copybara. 



The lynxes are smaller cats belonging to the northern hemisphere, and 

 the species figured is common to both continents. From their smaller size 

 they are compelled to take to smaller game than the panther ; and squir- 

 rels, grouse, porcupines, and other inhabitants of the forest are their prey. 



Fig. 530. — Lynx (F'elis boreal is). 



They will not willingly attack man, but when cornered, their sharp claws 

 and teeth make them antagonists not to be despised. The common wild- 

 cat or bay-lynx is but a variety of the form figured. 



The seals and their allies are the most aberrant of all the carnivores, 

 following out as they do a line of which we saw traces in the otter and 

 sea-otter. In the present group the whole body is fitted for life in the 

 water ; the feet are transformed into flippers, admirably adapted for nata- 

 tory locomotion, but of little use on land ; and in the seals themselves 

 the hinder pair of limbs are turned backward, so that they and the small 

 tail form a pretty perfect substitute for the flukes of a whale. Indeed, by 



