Tlie Cat Tribe. 85 



of a fierce, unreasoning courage, causing it to dash at 

 the most formidable foe, and wreak its vengeance with 

 its terrible tusks, which cut like so many razors. In 

 fact, if a jaguar were to be attacked by a herd of these 

 little animals, he would have no chance against them, 

 and could only save his life by resorting to a tree until 

 their patience became exhausted, and they retired from 

 the neighbourhood. 



The capybara falls a frequent victim to the attacks 

 of the jaguar, who even follows it into the water. Large 

 animals, such as horses or deer, it kills in the same 

 manner as does the leopard, namely, by leaping upon 

 them from the overhanging branches of some tree, and 

 breaking their necks by a powerful wrench with the 

 fore-paws. Even animals of considerable si/e are 

 carried off without difficulty by the jaguar, which 

 has been known to attack two horses which were 

 tethered together, kill one, and drag both animals to 

 its lair, in spite of the struggles of the survivor. 



Of birds, also, the jaguar is fond, and strikes them 

 down with a blow of his paw. Even should his in- 

 tended prey take to flight, he is often able, by one of 

 his wonderful bounds, to capture it before it has passed 

 beyond his reach. Fish he captures by lying in wait up- 

 on the banks of a stream, and hooking them out with 

 his paw as they pass beneath him. Turtles, too, often 

 fall a prey to him, and are killed and eaten in a very 

 ingenious manner. 



Watching for the female turtles as they make for the 

 sea after laying their eggs in the sand, the jaguar 

 springs upon them, and quickly turns them upon their 

 backs, a position in which they are perfectly helpless. 

 He then breaks away the softer parts of the shell by 

 the tail, and, inserting his paw, scoops out the whole 

 of the flesh through the aperture thus made. Of the 

 eggs, too, he is very fond, digging them up from the 



