THE ITY.EXA. 403 



fondness at being caressed by the same kind of gentle piirrings. 

 Tschudi informs us that the Indians of the northern provinces 

 frequently bring pumas to Lima, to show them for money. 

 They either lead tliem by a rope, or carry them in a sack upon 

 their back, until the sight-seers have assembled in sufficient 

 number. 



Besides the puma or the jaguar, tropical America possesses 

 the beautifully variegated Ocelot {Felis pardalis) ; the Os- 

 collo {F. celidog aster) \ the spotless, black-grey Jaguarundi 

 (F. jaguarvMcli), which is not much larger than the Euro- 

 pean wild cat ; the long-tailed, striped, and spotted Margay or 

 Tiger-cat, and several other felidae. All these smaller species 

 hardly ever become dangerous to man, but* they cause the 

 death of many an agouti and cavy ; and, with prodigious leaps, 

 the affrighted monkey flies from their approach into the deepest 

 recesses of the forest. 



While the sanguinary felidse may justly be called the eagles, 

 the carrion-feeding Hyaenas are the vultures, among the four- 

 footed animals. Averse to the light of day, like the owl and 

 the bat, they conceal themselves in dark caverns, ruins, or 

 burrows, as long as the sun stands above the horizon, but at 

 pightfall they come forth from their gloomy retreats with a 

 lamentable howl or a satanic laugh, to seek their disgusting 

 food on the fields, in churchyards, or on the borders of the sea. 

 From the prodigious strength of their jaws and tlieir teeth, 

 they are not only able to masticate tendons, but to crush car- 

 tilages and bones ; so that carcases almost entirely deprived of 

 flesh still provide them with a plentiful banquet. 



Though their nocturnal habits and savage aspect have ren- 

 dered them an object of hatred and disgust to man, they seem 

 -destined to fill up an important station in the economy of 

 Nature, by cleansing the earth of the remains of dead animals, 

 which might otherwise infect the atmosphere with pestilential 

 effluvia. 



Among other fabulous qualities, a courage has been attri- 

 buted to the hyaena which is completely alien to his base and 

 'grovelling nature. Far from venturing to attack the panther, 

 or putting even the lion to flight, as Kampfei pretended to have 

 seen, he is in reality a most pusillanimous creature, and cau- 

 tiously avoids a contest with animals much weaker than himself. 



