50 THE LIVING ANIMALS OF THE WORLD 
Photo ly G. U7. Wilson & Co., Ltd.) [Aberdeen 
JAGUAR 
The largest and strongest of the Cars of America, A South American species 
THE AMERICAN CATS 
Tue cats, great and small, of the New World resemble those of the Old, though not quite 
so closely as the caribou, wapiti deer, and moose of the northern forests resemble the reindeer, 
red deer, and elk of Europe. They are like, but with a difference. The Jaguar and the Ocelot 
are respectively larger and far more beautiful than their counterparts, the leopard and serval 
cats. But the Puma, the one medium-sized feline animal which is unspotted, is something 
unique. The jaguar and puma are found very far south in South America; and though the, 
jaguar is really a forest animal, it seems to have wandered out on to the Pampas of Argen- 
tina, perhaps attracted by the immense numbers of cattle, sheep, and horses on these plains. 
THE JAGUAR 
The JaGuar is as savage as it is formidable, 
but does not often attack men. Its headquarters 
are the immense forests running from Central 
America to Southern Brazil; and as all great forests 
are little inhabited, the jaguar is seldom encoun- 
tered by white men. By the banks of the great 
rivers it is semi-aquatic; it swims and climbs with 
equal ease, and will attack animals on board boats 
anchored in the rivers. As there are few animals 
of great size in these forests, its great strength is 
not often seen exercised, as is that of the lion; but 
it is the personification of concentrated force, and 
its appearance is well worth studying from that 
point of view. The spots are larger and squarer than 
in the leopard, the head ponderous, the forearms 
and feet one mass of muscle, knotted under the 
velvet skin. On the Amazons it draws its food 
alike from the highest tree-tops and the river-bed; 
i, in the former it catches monkeys in the branches, 
Photo by Scholastic Photo. Co., Parson's Green fish in the shallows of the rivers, and scoops out 
PUMA turtles’ eggs from the sand banks. Humboldt, who 
A puma in the act of lying down, like a domestic cat visited these regions when the white population 
