44 NATURAL HISTORY. 



continued to haunt me, and drove sleep away. I had seated myself on the front chest of the wagon, 

 when suddenly the melancholy cries were repeated, and on rushing to the spot, I discovered 

 ' Summer ' stretched at full length in the middle of a bush. Though the poor creature had several 

 deep wounds about his throat and chest, he at once recognised me, and, wagging his tail, looked 

 wistfully in my face. The sight sickened me as I carried him into the house, where, in time, however, 

 he recovered. The very next day Summer ' was revenged in a very unexpected manner. Some of 

 the servants had gone into the bed of the river to chase away a Jackal, when they suddenly 

 encountered a Leopard in the act of springing at our Goats, which were grazing, unconscious of danger, 

 on the river's bank. On finding himself discovered, he immediately took refuge in a tree, when he 

 was at once attacked by the men. It was, however, not until he had received upwards of sixteen 

 wounds some of which were inflicted by poisoned arrows that life became extinct. I arrived at the 

 scene of conflict only to see him die. During the whole affair, the men had stationed themselves at 

 the foot of the tree, to the branches of which the Leopard was pertinaciously clinging, and, having 

 expended all their ammunition, one of them proposed, and the suggestion was taken into serious 

 consideration, that they should pull him down by the tail." 



One of the most remarkable circumstances related aboxit the Leopard is the way in which it is 

 attracted by persons suffering from small-pox ; the odour attending that disease seems to have an 

 irresistible fascination for them. Sir Emerson Tennent says that the medical officers at small-pox 

 hospitals have to take special precautions against Leopards, which invariably haunt the spot. 



As with the other Felidce, the only value of the dead Leopard is the price of its skin, no truly 

 carnivorous animal being good eating ; although it is related that one of the South African tribes 

 will eat the flesh, not only of the Leopard, but even of the Hyaena, when they are hard pressed for food. 



CHAPTER IY. 

 THE CAT FAMILY: THE JAGUAR, THE SMALLER WILD CATS, THE DOMESTIC CAT. 



THE JAGUAR Its Character, Distribution, and Habits Fondness for Negroes THE PUMA Its Character, Geographical 

 Range, and Habits Mode of Hunting the Puma THE OUNCE THE CLOUDED TIGER The Character of its Fur, &c. 

 Its Habits THE OCELOT THE MARBLED TIGER-CAT THE VIVERRINE CAT THE PAMPAS CAT THE LONG-TAILED 

 TIGER-CAT THE MARGAY THE COLOCOLO THE JAGUARONDI THE EYRA THE SERVAL THE KUSTY-SPOTTED CAT 

 THE LEOPARD CAT THE BAY CAT THE SPOTTED WILD CAT THE MANUL THE EGYPTIAN CAT THE COMMON 

 WILD CAT THE DOMESTIC CAT Historical Sketch Characters of Skin, &c. Connection between Whiteness and 

 Blindness Habits Use of Whiskers Diet Poaching Propensities Fondness for Offspring Foster-Children 

 Madness in Cats Varieties The Angora Cat, Manx Cat, Persian Cat, and Chinese Cat. 



THE JAGUAR* 



THE Jaguar takes the place of the Leopard in America, where it is the most formidable of beasts 

 of prey. It extends across the whole of the central part of the continent ; its northern limit being 

 the south-west boundary of the United States. 



It is a slightly larger animal than the Leopard, fierce and sulky in expression, but more elegant 

 in form, and far handsomer as to its skin. The spots are arranged in larger and more definite groups, 

 each group consisting of a ring of well-defined black spots enclosing a space of a somewhat darker 

 tawny than the ground-colour, in which lesser spots often occur. 



The Jaguar is perhaps the fiercest-looking of all the great Cats, having an extremely ferocious expres- 

 sion and a horrid habit of showing its great fangs. Some time ago we were taken over the fine Lion- 

 house in the Zoological Gardens by the Superintendent, Mr. Bartlett, to whose practical genius for 

 everything that relates to the comfort of the animals under his charge most of the perfections of 

 that structure are due. The little sleeping apartments at the back of the den open by iron doors into 

 a long corridor, and in each of the doors is a small hole about the size of a penny, through which the 

 keeper can look. Mr. Bartlett blew sharply through the hole in the den of the Jaguar's cage, and 

 then allowed us to look through, and there was something terrible in the way the savage beast 



* Felis onca. 





