8 UNITED STATES AND MEXICAN BOUNDiRY. 



In a moment the poor man was in the clutches of the beast, which drag-^ed its victim into a back corner to finish the bloody 



« 



work. The guardian of the convent, on hearing the exclamations in the sacristy, hurried to enter the fatal room, and had 

 scarcely become aware of what had happened when the animal leaped upon his second victim and despatcFied him with the same 

 promptitude as the first. After a while several other men attempted to enter the bloody sacristy, but not without meeting a 

 similar fate, for the first one opening th3 door was immediately slain. A senator, Mr, Idoncfo, being present, tried now to 

 approach the sacristy by an adjoining back room which communicated with the former by a small door. The jaguar, however, 

 had left the sacristy in the meantime through that very door which Mr. I. wanted to use, and before the latter, followed by a 

 small crowd, cuuld enter it, he heard the cries, " here he is! here he goes! save me I" With this the roaring of the jaguar was 

 heard, and mingled with it the last exclamations of a fourth victim. Each party now retired, the convent people to the church, 

 and the jaguar to where he had chosen his first stronghold, 



"Mr. I. now approached and bolted the door of the sacristy opening into the church, making the least noise he could. 

 A hole was then bored through the door, and finally the crowd succeeded in shooting and killing the dreadful monster through 

 the opening thus prepared." 



4 _ 



Some explanation is necessary to make more intelligible this almost incredible occurrence. The convent of San Francisco ^ 

 in Santa Fe, is situated upon the banks of the Rio Bravo, which, after freshets, occasionally overflows the islands in front of the 

 town. During one of these overflows all the animals living in the thickets upon the island seem to have been driven out ; 

 among them the above jaguar, which made for the town side, where he entered the gardens of the convent. A low wall only 

 encircles the latter towards the river. From the gardens he entered a small door, accidentally left open, and so eame through 

 an old back vestry to the sacristy. At the time his first unfortunate victim entered the sanctuary from the church side the animal 

 was perfectly aware that his retreat was cut ofl' by the river flood, and thus found himself forced to the desperate attack upon 

 a man, which he was likewise compelled to repeat several times. 



The largest jaguar skin which I saw was taken from a specimen killed near the mouth of the little stream Las Moras, above 

 Eao^le Pass, and measured nearly five feet to the insertion of the tail. 



7. FELIS PARDALIS; Linn. (p. 8T.)— Ocelot: Tiger Cat. 



Sp. Ch.— Size about that of the American wildcat. Tail not half as long as the body and neck (exclusive of the head.) 

 Eirs black, with a white spot. Tail above black, with narrow bands of white ; five stripes on the back of neck, with lighter 

 intervals ; a dorsal series of full black blotches, sometimes more or less continuous ; the rest of back and sides showing a gray- 

 ish network inclosing angular blotches more or less elongated, black externally, brownish yellow in the centre ; those blotches 

 next the dorsal line more serial and smaller. 



In size this animal about equals tlie Texan lynx^ weighing ratlier more than the common 

 LTjnx rufus. The skull is decidedly longer^ its general form not dissimilar to that of the com- 

 mon cat. The fur is short, close, and glossy. The legs are rather long. The ears are large, 

 rounded at the apex, nearly naked around the meatus, around and anterior to which are nume- 

 rous bristly hairs. The convexity of the ear is covered by a short velvety fur. The whiskers 

 are in four principal horizontal series, the lower ones white, the upper brown. There are 

 naked pads under all the four toes of the four feet, with a larger central one on the under 

 surface of the latter, or five to each foot. On the fore feet there are two additional naked spots 

 above the palmar pad. The tail is nearly cylindrical, tapering slightly to the end, which, how- 

 ever, is blunt ; it is covered uniformly all around with hair. In the prepared specimens the 

 tail is less than half the length of head and body together (about two-fifths.) 



The general character of the ground color is a dull brownish yellow mixed with dusky ; in 

 some specimens there is a more grayish tinge. On this ground is a series of blotches and ocelli 

 of black, sometimes more or less rounded, sometimes much elongated ; on the side the spots are 

 included in the meshes of an elongated reticulation of gray ; beneath, the color is white, with 

 larger full blotches of black, faint on the lower belly. The legs are spotted all round with full 

 blotches of black, which, on the inside of the fore legs, assume the character of transverse 

 bars. The tail, viewed from above, appears to be black, with six or eight transverse bars o 



