uN THE FATHER OF GAME 37 
swamps, among whose flickering lights his form 
is certainly easily lost to view, as also are those 
of the margay and ocelot, though the marblings 
of the latter are very different from the jaguar’s 
sharp black rosettes; but unfortunately for the 
correlative half of the argument, the puma is also 
an inhabitant of the very same deep woods that 
are the home of the jaguar, ocelot, and margay in 
the south, and of the much-spotted lynx in the 
north; and so are the jaguarondi and eyra, neither 
of which have any variegations of hide to imitate 
the dapplings of light and shadow. 
Another thing: We are told that the bold stripes 
of the Bengal tiger match so well with the vertical 
lights and shadows among the tall grasses and 
bamboos of an Indian jungle as to conceal that 
beast almost entirely when he lies within it; but 
a similar covert is a favorite lurking-place, along 
the River Plate, for our jaguar, yet he does not 
need, or at any rate does not possess, the vertical 
stripes regarded as indispensable to his East Indian 
cousin under the same circumstances. 
When one surveys the whole family, he dis- 
covers that there are as many spotted cats on the 
plains and deserts as in the forests, and vice versa ; 
and then, remembering that the habits of all are 
substantially the same, he begins to doubt the 
value of any conclusion in this direction drawn 
from one species. Moreover, it must not be for- 
gotten that the cats are for the most part nocturnal 
