210 THE JAGUAR. 



watching, or by openly seizing the cattle and horses in the 

 enclosures. It actively pursues smaller animals, and even 

 the monkeys, with all their agility, 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 length succeeded in reaching the 

 very top." "Sometimes, after a long silence, says Hum- 

 boldt, " the cry of the Jaguar comes from the tops of the 

 trees ; and in this case it was followed by the sharp and 

 long whistling of the monkeys, which appeared to flee 

 from the danger that threatened them." But horses, oxen 

 and sheep are his favorite seizures, and the depredations 

 committed are sometimes very extensive. Nor is it to be 

 wondered at that the inroads of these creatures are looked 

 upon 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 Bue- 

 nos Ayres alone. 



Among the Pampas of Paraguay, great havoc is com- 

 mitted among the herds of horses, and the swiftness of the 

 courser is unavailing before one of these relentless foes. 

 Fear seems to paralyze his efforts, a spring brings the for- 

 midable assailant upon his back, and he is either brought 

 to the ground by the weight, or the neck is broken by a 

 blow or twist on the muzzle. A full grown Jaguar is quite 

 able to drag -off a horse. Azara caused the body of a horse 

 which had newly fallen a victim to this animal, to be drawn 

 within musket shot of a tree, in which he intended to pass 

 the night, anticipating that the Jaguar would return in the 

 course of it to its victim ; but while he was gone to pre- 

 pare for the adventure, the animal returned from the oppo- 

 site side of a large and d^eep river, and having seized the 

 horse with its teeth, drew it for about sixty paces, to the 



