Jhe Headwaters of the Paraguay 129 



color schemes as the bright red of the marsh-deer, the 

 black of the black jaguar, and the black with white 

 stripes of the great tamandua, are not positive detriments 

 to the wearers. Yet such is evidently not the case. Evi- 

 dently the other factors in species-survival are of such 

 overwhelming importance that the coloration becomes 

 negligible from this standpoint, whether it be concealing 

 or revealing. The cats mould themselves to the ground 

 as they crouch or crawl. They take advantage of the 

 tiniest scrap of cover. They move with extraordinary 

 stealth and patience. The other animals which try to 

 sneak off in such manner as to escape observation ap- 

 proach more or less closely to the ideal which the cats 

 most nearly realize. Wariness, sharp senses, the habit 

 of being rigidly motionless when there is the least sus- 

 picion of danger, and ability to take advantage of cover, 

 all count. On the bare, open, treeless plain, whether 

 marsh, meadow, or upland, anything above the level of 

 the grass is seen at once. A marsh-deer out in the open 

 makes no effort to avoid observation; its concern is 

 purely to see its foes in time to leave a dangerous neigh- 

 borhood. The deer of the neighboring forest skulk and 

 hide and lie still in dense cover to avoid being seen. The 

 white-lipped peccaries make no effort to escape observa- 

 tion by being either noiseless or motionless; they trust 

 for defence to their gregariousness and truculence. The 

 collared peccary also trusts to its truculence, but seeks 

 refuge in a hole where it can face any opponent with its 

 formidable biting apparatus. As for the giant tamandua, 

 in spite of its fighting prowess I am wholly unable to 

 understand how such a slow and clumsy beast has been 



