126 FLESH-EATERS OF THE LAND 



The Asiatic Leopards are no whit better than their African 

 cousins : whether in Western Asia, India, China, Siberia, or 

 Japan, and many a region between, the Leopard bears the 

 same bad character. Feeding largely on putrid flesh, its 

 bite more often than not causes blood-poisoning ; and it is 

 always ready to satisfy its ravenous appetite with anything, 

 from a cow to a bird on its roost. 



In Central Asia is the beautiful Snow Leopard (Felis 

 uncia), or Ounce, the colour of its long fur being white, 

 clouded with a delicate grey and resetted irregularly with 

 black. The tail is long and bushy. A lady kept one as 

 a pet for a long time, afterwards transferring it to the Zoo, 

 where it was far more friendly than many cats. The lion 

 and tiger, too, are frequently tamed, but such animal friend- 

 ships often end in dire tragedy, the creatures being liable at 

 any moment to be impelled by some wild impulse to exhibit 

 their ingrained ferocity. 



JAGUAE (Felis onca). 

 Coloured Plate VI. Fig. 4. 



Of the cats inhabiting the New World, the largest and 

 handsomest is the Jaguar, an animal which the European 

 residents invariably miscall by the name of tiger. There is 

 no difficulty in distinguishing the Jaguar from the true 

 leopards. In the first place, when full grown, it is not much 

 less than the tiger itself. Moreover, the rosettes of dark 

 spots with which its fur is adorned have a black spot in the 

 centre of each group. Then, when the animal is viewed in 

 front, several bold black stripes are seen to be drawn across 

 the breast and lower portion of the neck, which is never the 

 case with the leopards of the Old World. 



The Jaguar inhabits nearly the whole of Central and 

 South America to Southern Brazil, from which it wanders 

 to the pampas of the Argentine, attracted thereto doubtless 

 by the vast herds of cattle. In the Amazon valley the 

 animal lives largely in trees, chasing and catching even 

 the active American monkeys, in spite of their additional 

 limb in the form of the prehensile tail. It^would not, 



