348 THE LION Of AMERICA. 



feet, and four to the hind feet. One species is clothed with grayish- 

 yellow silky hair ; this is of rare occurrence. The other has a fur 

 of a dingy brown colour, without silky lustre. One was brought to 

 me alive, having been caught by an Indian clinging motionless inside 

 a hollow tree. I kept it in the house about twenty-four hours. It 

 had a moderately long snout, curved downwards, and extremely 

 small eyes. It remained nearly all the time without motion, except 

 when irritated, in which case it reared itself on its hind-legs from 

 the back of a chair to which it clung, and clawed out with its fore- 

 paws like a cat. Its manner of clinging with its claws, and the 

 sluggishness of its motions, gave it a great resemblance to a sloth. 

 It uttered no sound, and remained all night on the spot where I had 

 placed it in the morning. The next day I put it on a tree in the 

 open air, and at night it escaped. These small Tamanduas are 

 nocturnal in their habits, and feed on those species of termites which 

 construct earthy nests, that look like ugly excrescences on the trunks 

 and branches of trees. The different kinds of ant-eaters are thus 

 adapted to various modes of life, terrestrial and arboreal." 



In Tropical America the most remarkable representatives of the 

 Garni vora are two great species of Felidre: the Puma, or Cougouar 

 (Fells concolor), also called the Lion of America ; and the Jaguar, or 

 Ounce (Fells onca), sometimes distinguished as the American Tiger. 



The Puma measures about five feet from nose to tail ; the tail 

 alone measuring two feet and a half. His colour is a brownish-red, 

 with small patches of deeper tint, only shown up by certain lights ; 

 the breast, belly, and inner flanks are of a reddish ash ; the lower 

 jaw and throat entirely white ; the tail of a dusky ferruginous tinge, 

 tipped with black. As he grows older, however, his general colour 

 becomes a silvery fawn. He has no mane. His manners that is, 

 his habits and disposition are rather those of the panther than the 

 lion. He climbs trees with cat-like expertness, whether in chase of 

 birds, or to secure a vantage-point from which he may pounce upon 

 some unsuspecting victim. He never attacks the larger quadrupeds, 

 confining himself to such "small deer" as young calves, colts, and 



