CAPTURE OF ANIMALS. 69 



The best way to take Panthers with steel-traps is to find 

 where they have killed a deer or other animal, and left part 

 of the carcass. Secrete the trap near the remains, and you 

 will catch them when they return for a second meal. They 

 seldom leave the vicinity of an animal they have killed, till it 

 is all devoured. The same is true of all the large animals of 

 the cat kind, such as the lion, tiger, leopard, jaguar, &c. 



THE JAGUAR. 



Like the cougar, this is an exclusively American animal. 

 Though scarcely equalling the cougar in extreme length, the 

 Jaguar is stouter and more formidable. It is found from 

 Louisiana to Buenos Ayres. This animal has a large head, a 

 robust body, and is very ferocious. Its usual size is about 

 three fourths that of the tiger. Humboldt, however, states 

 that he saw Jaguars which in length surpassed that of all the 

 tigers of Asia which he had seen in the collections of Europe. 

 The Jaguar is sometimes called the American tiger. Their 

 favorite haunts are the swamps and jungles of tropical Amer- 

 ica. There they subsist on monkeys, capabyras or water- 

 hogs, tapirs, peccaries, birds, turtles and turtle eggs, lizards, 

 fish, shell-fish, and insects. Emerging from these haunts into 

 the more open country, they prey upon deer, horses, cattle, 

 sheep, and farm stock. In the early days of the settlement of 

 South America the Jaguar was one of the greatest scourges 

 the settlers had to meet. They haunted the clearings and 

 plantations and devoured horses, cattle, and sheep without 

 mercy. Nor were the settlers themselves and their children 

 free from their attack. For many years where Jaguars 

 abounded the settlers had an arduous warfare before they 

 could exterminate the ferocious marauders, or drive them 

 from the vicinity of their habitations. 



The Jaguar is a cautious and suspicious animal. It never 

 makes an open attack on man or beast. It approaches its 

 prey stealthily, and pounces upon it from some hiding-place, 

 or some position of advantage. It will follow a herd of ani- 

 mals for many miles in hopes of securing a straggler ; and 

 always chooses the hindmost animal, in order that if turned 



