Animals of Peru. 1719 



however, too cunning to be easily caught in traps, and it is only when pressed by hun- 

 ger that he can be tempted by a bait. In some districts the ounces have increased so 

 greatly, and done so much damage, that the natives have been compelled to remove 

 and settle in other places. I need only refer to the quebrada of Mayumarca, in the 

 Montana of Huanta, near the road to Anca. There once stood the little village of 

 Mayumarca, which has been abandoned for more than a hundred years, as it was 

 found that the jaguars annually decimated the inhabitants: this quebrada is still in 

 such bad repute that not a single Indian will venture into it. 



" There is a black variety of the ounce, by many erroneously regarded as a distinct 

 species. It has the identical marks of the common jaguar, or ounce, only its colour is 

 a dark, blackish-brown, whereby the whole of the black spots are tendered indistinct. 

 On the lower banks of the Ucayali and the Maranon this dark variety is more fre- 

 quently met with than in the higher forests; in the Montanas of Huanta and Uru- 

 bamba it is also not uncommon. It is upon the whole larger, stronger, and more dar- 

 ing than the lighter kind, and I have actually seen many black skins which exceeded 

 the usual length ; but of specific distinctions there is no indication. The super- 

 stitious Indians assign extraordinary powers to everything that departs from the com- 

 mon course ; the black ounce is, accordingly, supposed to possess singular properties. 

 The yana chinca holds a prominent place in the religious ceremonies of some of the 

 Indian races. 



" Turning from these fierce natives of the forests, we will now take a glimpse at 

 the peaceful inhabitants of those umbrageous regions. In the hollow stems of trees, 

 or among their canopied branches, are found the timid marsupial animals (Didelphis 

 impavida and noctivaga, Tsch.). These animals remain in obscure holes until the sun 

 sinks beneath the horizon, when they slip out in search of insects and fruit. Not un^ 

 frequently they penetrate into the slightly guarded Indian huts, creeping into every 

 corner, until at last they are caught in traps baited with pieces of banana and pine- 

 apple. The lofty Terebinthacea?, with their walnut-like fruit, are inhabited by swarms 

 of squirrels, which strongly remind the European of his own woods. Numbers of the 

 mouse family, from the small tree-mouse {Drymomys parvulus, Tsch.) to the large, 

 loathsome, spinous rat (Echinomys leptosoma, Wagn.), swarm over all the montanas, 

 and love to approximate to the dwellings of man. These animals destroy the gathered 

 harvest, and even in these remote regions they become a plague. It is a striking fact, 

 that certain animals are almost inseparable from man. They keep with him, or follow 

 him wherever he settles. The mouse genus is one of these. On the coast mice are 

 not the same as on the mountains, and in the forests they are again different. Every- 

 where they leave their original dwelling places, which they exchange for an abode 

 with man. As the mouse and the rat attack the gathered fruits of the earth, the 

 agouti preys on those yet standing in the field. These animals are seldom found in 

 the depths of the forest, but more frequently on its edge, near the chacras of the 

 Indians. Shortly before sunset they leave the thickets, and stealthily repair to the 

 maize, yucca, and anana fields, where they scratch up the root and eat the grain and 

 fruit; but the slightest noise drives them back to their holes. In the deeper re- 

 cesses of the forest resounds the monotonous, drawling cry of the sloth. Here 

 we have a symbol of life under the utmost degree of listlessness, and of the greatest 

 insensibility, in a state of languid repose. This emblem of misery fixes itself on an 

 almost leafless bough and there remains defenceless, a ready prey to any assailant. 

 Better defended is the scale-covered armadillo, with his coat of mail. Towards 



