486 



I 





CHAPTEK XLII. 



THE FELID^ OF THE NEW WOELD. 



The Jagxiar — His Boldness — Jaguar Hunting — Heroic Conflict of Three Brazilian 

 Herdsmen with a Jaguar — The Couguar, or the Puma — His Cowardice — The 

 Ocelot. 



THE same radical differences which draw so wide a line of 

 demarcation between the simise of the Old and the New World 

 are found also to distinguish the feline races of both hemispheres, 

 so that it would be as vain to search in the American forests and 

 savannas for the Numidian lion, or the striped tiger, as on the 

 banks of the Ganges or the Senegal for the tawny puma, or the 

 spotted jaguar. While in the African plains -the swift-footed 

 spring-bok, or the koodoo, unrivalled among the antelopes for 

 his bold and widely-spreading horns, falls under the impetuous 

 bound of the panther — or while the tiger and the buffalo 

 engage in mortal combat in the Indian jungle — the blood-thirsty 



Jaguar, concealed in the high grass of 

 the American llanos, lies in wait for 

 the wild horse or the passing steer. 



The arrival of the Spaniards in the 

 New World, so destructive to most of 

 the Indian tribes with whom they 

 Jaguar. Came into contact, was beneficial at 



least to the large felidae of tropical 

 America, for they first introduced the horse and the ox into 

 the western hemisphere, where these useful animals, finding a 

 new and congenial home in the boundless savannas and pampas, 

 which extend almost uninterruptedly from the Apure to Pata- 

 gonia, have multiplied to an incredible extent. Since then th# 

 jaguar no longer considers the deer of the woods, the graceful 

 agouti, or the; slow capybara as his chief prey, but rejoices ia. 



