HABITS OF THE JAGUAR. 173 



necks. If driven from the carcass, they seldom 

 return to it. The Gauchos say that the jaguar, 

 Avhen wandering about at night, is much tormented 

 by the foxes yelping as they follow him. This is 

 a curious coincidence with the fact which is gener- 

 ally affirmed of the jackals accompanying, in a sim- 

 ilarly officious manner, the East Indian tiger. The 

 jaguar is a noisy animal, roaring much by night, 

 and especially before bad weather. 



One day, when hunting on the banks of the Uru- 

 guay, I was shown certain trees, to which these an- 

 imals constantly recur for the purpose, as it is said, 

 of sharpening their claws. I saw three well-known 

 trees ; in front, the bark was worn smooth, as if 

 by the breast of the animal, and on each side there 

 were deep scratches, or rather grooves, extending 

 in an oblique line, nearly a yard in length. Tiie 

 scars were of different ages. A common method 

 of ascertaining whether a jagviar is in the neigh- 

 bourhood is to examine these trees. I imagine 

 this habit of the jaguar is exactly similar to one 

 which may any day be seen in the common cat, as 

 with outsti-etched legs and exserted claws it scrapes 

 the leg of a chair ; and I have heard of young fruit- 

 trees in an orchard in England having been thus 

 much injured. Some such habit must also be com- 

 mon to the puma, for on the bare hard soil of Pat- 

 agonia I have fiequently seen scores so deep that 

 no other animal could have made them. The ob- 

 ject of this practice is, I believe, to tear off the rag- 

 ged points of their claws, and not, as the Gauchos 

 think, to sharpen them. The jaguar is killed, 

 without much difficulty, by the aid of dogs baying 

 and driving him up a tree, where he is despatched 

 witli bullets. 



Owing to bad weather we remained two days at 

 our moorings. Our only amusement was catching 



ip 2 



