SOUTH AMERICAN CATS 
kept in many a household as a family pet, but are of uncertain 
temper, and rather too fond of rough play; yet some have been 
thoroughly gentle. 
Another beautifully and similarly striped and spotted for- 
est cat is the margay (Guaranese, mbaracaya), likewise so 
variable in color and markings that half a dozen 
names have been given to its varieties —one is 
the “‘cauzel” of Costa Rica. It is rather smaller than the 
ocelot and seems to be exclusively nocturnal, and to feed mainly 
on birds, which, judging by the conduct of captives, are stripped 
of all their feathers before they are eaten. This tiger cat is 
rarely if ever domesticated. The same region gives us a third 
cat, Geoffroy’s, colored like a leopard, and one of the hand- 
somest of those depicted on Elliot’s “4 sumptuous plates. 
Whether all these, the ‘‘ocelotlike” cat of Colombia, the ‘‘colo- 
colo” of Guiana, and other American tiger cats, will not finally 
turn out to be merely varieties of one widespread and sur- 
prisingly variable species, remains to be determined. Much 
information is still needed here. 
More distinctive is the grass or pampas cat, or “‘pajero,” 
familiar to the people of the open country between Brazil and 
the Straits of Magellan. It is rather more robust  pampas 
than a domestic Tom, and its color is predomi- 4 
nantly gray, with a tan tinge and white whiskers, but no two 
are alike. Describing in The Field (London, 1897) one in his 
possession, W. Melville, an English resident near Buenos 
Ayres, gives the following facts: — 
Margay. 
“The tiger spots, just visible through the long fur on the sides, become 
beautifully mixed with stripes on the belly and legs; the tips of the ears are 
jet-black, and the tail very short and blunt. Few cats are ungainly walkers, 
yet the pajero does so with a very awkward roll, due to the phenomenal 
breadth of chest, causing the elbows to turn outward; the hindquarters 
have the appearance of being pinched; the fur is almost as long as that of 
the Persian on the back and sides, the head of the pajero having very much 
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