44 THE TOWER MENAGERIE. 
sometimes two black dots or spots of smaller size towards 
their centre: an apparently trifling, but constant and 
very remarkable distinction, which exists in no other 
species. By this peculiarity alone the Jaguar may at 
once be recognised; and this external characteristic, 
together with the extreme shortness of his tail, his much 
greater size, his comparatively clumsy form, and the 
heaviness of all his motions, not to speak of the peculiarity 
of his voice, which has the sharp and harsh sound of an 
imperfect bark, are unquestionably fully sufficient to 
sanction his separation from a race of animals, from 
which, however much he may resemble them in general 
characters, he differs in so many and such essential par- 
ticulars. That this separation has been made more com- 
plete by the hand of Nature herself, who has interposed 
the wide ocean between him and those of his fellows 
with whom alone there is any probability of his being 
confounded, is an additional proof, if any confirmation 
were wanting, of the soundness of the distinction which 
has been drawn between them. 
It is in the swampy forests of South America that the 
Jaguar commits his destructive ravages, which are spread 
over nearly the whole of that continent from Paraguay 
almost to the Isthmus of Darien. It has frequently been 
said that he is also to be found in Mexico; but this 
appears to be a mistake, originating probably in Buffon’s 
having confounded the Jaguar with the Ocelot, describing 
and figuring the latter under the name of the former, and 
intermingling with his description many of the peculiar 
traits of the real Jaguar derived from the relations of 
travellers. On the other hand he has erroneously figured 
the latter animal under the name of the Panther; a 
