22 The Carnivora. 
under proper officers, to deal with reptiles and animals of a 
destructive character. However depressed the state of the 
Indian finances may be at any time, it would be the worst 
economy to withhold the small annual expenditure of about 
£12,000, which has thus far effected a marked diminution in loss 
of life and property, while it might with advantage be raised to 
double the amount. 
Although the intelligence of the cat family is far inferior to 
that of many other mammals, surprising cunning is sometimes 
evinced by them. An interesting example of this is given by 
the author of “ Sport and Work on the Nepaul Frontier,” a writer 
who is evidently an attentive observer as well as a keen sports- 
man. Tigers, he affirms, will often crouch flat on the earth for 
the purpose of concealing themselves during a “beat,” even 
when a line of elephants is trampling down the jungle close to 
them in every direction, He also mentions a much more 
remarkable instance of their sagacity. A tiger, being closely 
pursued, was suddenly lost sight of near a pool of water, and 
almost given up, when it was perceived: totally immersed in the 
water with the exception of its nose, eyes, and ears, within a few 
yards of the sportsman, who forthwith gave it its guietus. The 
beast might have been thought to be dead had it not sprung 
from the water at the first shot, and only succumbed on receiving 
a second through the spine. 
Probably the most ferocious of the great cats is their largest 
representative on the American continent—the jaguar. One 
cannot but be impressed by its sullen and savage demeanour, 
even in captivity, while its prodigious muscular development is 
suggestive of the possession of even greater relative strength 
than the tiger. In South America its common prey, the capy- 
bara (or “carpincho,” as the natives call it), that great am- 
phibious rodent with the aspect of a Guinea pig, must tax the 
energies of its captor to the utmost; for, though unprovided with 
any offensive weapons, the capybara is exceedingly strong and 
bulky. Some specimens which I have shot were so heavy that two 
men could not carry them. Founding his opinion on common 
