490 THE FELID^E OF THE NEW WORLD 



and the attack being vigorously renewed, the jaguar was 

 at length killed. The bleeding and exhausted heroes were 

 hardly able to crawl home in the evening. They pointed 

 out the spot where they had fought, and where the jaguar 

 was found swimming in his blood, surrounded by the dogs which 

 he had torn to pieces. 



There is a black variety of the jaguar, on whose dark skin the 

 ring-formed spots are still visible, and which is said to surpass 

 the common species in size and ferocity. 



The Couguar, or the Puma, as he is called by the Indians, is far 

 inferior to the jaguar in courage, and 

 consequently far less dangerous to 

 man. On account of his brownish- 

 red colour and great size, being the 

 largest felis of the new world, he has 

 Puma. also been named the American lion, 



but he has neither the mane nor the 

 noble bearing of the " king of animals." In spite of his 

 strength he is of so cowardly a disposition that he invariably 

 takes to flight at the approach of man, and consequently in- 

 spires no fear on being met with in the wilderness; while 

 even the boldest hunter instinctively starts back, when, winding 

 through the forest, he suddenly sees the sparkling eye of the 

 jaguar intently fixed upon him. 



The puma has a much wider range than the jaguar, for while 

 the latter reaches in South America only to the forty-fifth degree 

 of latitude, and does not rove northwards beyond Sonora and 

 New Mexico, the former roams from the Straits of Magellan to 

 the Canadian lakes. The jaguar seldom ascends the mountains 

 to a greater height than 3,000 feet, while in the warmer lateral 

 valleys of the Andes the puma frequently lies in ambush for the 

 vicunas at an elevation of 10,000 feet above the level of the 

 sea. He can climb trees with great facility, ascending even 

 vertical trunks, and, like the lynx, will watch the opportunity 

 of springing on such animals as happen to pass beneath. No 

 less cruel than cowardly, he will destroy without necessity 

 forty or fifty sheep when the occasion offers, and content 

 himself with licking the blood of his victims. When caught 

 young, he is easily tamed, and, like the common cat, shows his 

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



