142 DIVISION I. VEKTECKAL AXniALS. — CLASS I. MAJBIALIA. 



force liiiii to seek safety in a tree, where he is kept till the approach of the 

 hunters, who shoot iiiiii, or disable him with their long spears. 



Iniinciisc numbers of them are killed every year ; two thousand are 

 aiimially exported from Uuenos Ayrcs alone. 



The jaguar exliibits, in some things, a large degree of sagacity. His 

 manner of catching turtles would almost seem to be the result of both rea- 

 siin and experience, for he secures them precisely as their human hunters 

 do. lie goes to the beach, and, surj)rising the turtles on tjie sand, suddenly 

 and skill'ully turns them up on the back, in which situation they are entirely 

 helpless and immovable. Jlen take them by the same mode. This act 

 seems so entirely the sequence of some process of reasoning, or the result 

 of an intelligent observation of the habits and powers of the turtle, that we 

 should hesitate to believe the account, were it not reported bj' Humboldt, 

 who often witnessed the operation himself. 



The jaguar is eipially skilful in extracting the meat from the shell. How 

 he does it, is not explained; but, by using his claws in some unknown man- 

 ner, he succeeds in drawing out the entire body of the turtle as clean as if 

 the adhering muscles had been cut by a surgeon's knife, and without, in the 

 least degree, breaking or separating the shell. 



This animal does not appear inclined to attack man, unless in self-defence ; 

 Ijut, as if some pcci.iliar instinct, similar to that of the dog, led iiim to desire 

 human society, he will follow a traveller ibr miles, skirting the road, and 

 appearing oidy at intervals among the bushes ; and as he never attempts to 

 molest him, he must l)e attracted to man by some unexplained S3'm[)afhy. 



iSometimcs, even in his wild state, he seems to be seized witli playfid 

 fits. Humboldt fiu-ni.dics us with an instance. "Two Indian children, a girl 

 and boy, the one aljout seven, the otlier al)out nine years old, were at 

 play on the outskirts of a village, when a large jaguar, about two o'clock in 

 the afternoon, came out of the woods and made towards them, playfully 

 bounding along, his head down, and his back arched, in the manner of a 

 cat. He approached the l)oy in this way, and liegan to play with him ; nor 

 was he e^■en sensible of any danger, until the jaguar, not intending harm, 

 ])robaljl3-, I)ut in sport, struck him so hard as to draw blood, whereupon the 

 little girl, with a small switch which she held in her hand, struck him, 

 when, not at all irritateil, he bounded away, in the same playful manner, to 

 his retreat in the forest." 



This incident also proves the existence of a latent sympathy, which leads 

 certain animals to desire the friendship, jirotection, and caresses of man, 

 and which exhibits itself, sometimes, in their wildest state. 



The Ouxce (FhUh uncia). (See Plate XII.) — The ounce is a 

 mountain cat, marked by long, shaggy hair. The tail is longer than the 



