1904.] Allen, Mammals from Santa Mart a, Colombia. 447 



jaguar is not found at Santa Marta, and from all I have heard 

 it seems to be almost confined to the great river* plains. The 

 hunters scout the idea that this is a variety of the jaguar; 

 they say it is commonly larger and always fiercer, and that 

 it has a peculiar cry ; that black females always go with dark 

 cubs and spotted ones with spotted cubs. I am more in- 

 clined to doubt this than the other report ; the mere difference 

 of appearance would lead the hunters to regard the black 

 jaguar as distinct. Some skins which I have seen on the 

 Paraguay were dark without being actually black, and they 

 showed the spots plainly. If the black jaguar is a melanic 

 variety it is of the pacoua-sororoca. I give these reports be- 

 cause they seem interesting, and hunters are generally good 

 authorities on such questions. I may note in passing that 

 the same men recognize only two kinds of coati (one kind in 

 southern Brazil), though naturalists have described a great 

 number; and they do not divide other variable species, such 

 as the tamandua. 



" Jaguars are much fiercer than pumas, and I know of several 

 instances where they have attacked man unprovoked, even 

 springing on him from behind, and in broad daylight. They 

 are readily brought to bay by dogs, and fight them fiercely, 

 often killing several before the hunters come up. The spear- 

 hunters of the Paraguay, after bringing the jaguar to bay, pro- 

 voke them to spring on the spear, which is held diagonally 

 with the butt resting on the ground. Jaguars fight almost 

 entirely with their paws, the claws sheathed, so that the 

 weapon is, in effect, like a padded club. The force of their 

 blows is very great. A large dog, belonging to one of my 

 Brazilian hunters, was hurled twenty feet and was literally 

 crushed against a tree trunk. I once found a deer which had 

 just been killed by a jaguar and was still warm; it was only 

 on close examination that I found a small scratch on the 

 shoulder; not a bone was broken, and there was little suffu- 

 sion of blood. The animal had been knocked dead with a paw 

 like velvet. 



"These animals are a great pest about cattle estates, killing 

 calves or even old cows or bulls, and often pigs ; they drag their 



