32 Through the Brazilian Wilderness 



were killed by pumas. Evidently in this one locality the 

 habit of at least occasional man-eating has become chronic 

 with a species which elsewhere is the most cowardly, 

 and. to man the least dangerous, of all the big cats. 



These observations of Doctor Moreno have a peculiar 

 value, because, as far as I know, they are the first trust- 

 worthy accounts of a cougar's having attacked man save 

 under circumstances so exceptional as to make the at- 

 tack signify little more than the similar exceptional in- 

 stances of attack by various other species of wild ani- 

 mals that are not normally dangerous to man. 



The jaguar, however, has long been known not only 

 to be a dangerous foe when itself attacked, but also 

 now and then to become a man-eater. Therefore the 

 instances of such attacks furnished me are of merely 

 corroborative value. 



In the excellent zoological gardens at Buenos Aires 

 the curator. Doctor Onelli, a naturalist of note, showed 

 us a big male jaguar which had been trapped in the 

 Chaco, where it had already begun a career as a man- 

 eater, having killed three persons. They were killed, and 

 two of them were eaten; the animal was trapped, in con- 

 sequence of the alarm excited by the death of his third 

 victim. This jaguar was very savage ; whereas a young 

 jaguar, which was in a cage with a young tiger, was 

 playful and friendly, as was also the case with the young 

 tiger. On my trip to visit La Plata Museum I was 

 accompanied by Captain Vicente Montes, of the Argen- 

 tine Navy, an accomplished officer of scientific attain- 

 ments. He had at one time been engaged on a survey 

 of the boundary between the Argentine and Parana and 



