II 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 



