3i6 



ZOOLOGY OF 



Viilpes / A wild dog, or fox, of the forests ; it hunts in 



smali packs ; it is easily domesticated, but is very scarce. 



Leopardus concolor. The Puma. In the Lingoa Geral, 

 Sasurana, " the false deer," from its colour. 



Z. onga. The Jaguar. Jauarite, (Lingoa Geral). — "The 

 Great Dog." 



L. oiiga^ var. nigra. The Black Jaguar. Jauarite pixuna, 

 (Lingoa Geral). Tigre (Spaniards). 



L.pidus and L.griseus, Tiger Cats. Maracaja, (Lingoa Geral). 



The Jaguar, or onga, appears to approach very nearly in 

 fierceness and strength to the tiger of India. Many persons 

 are annually killed or wounded by these animals. When they 

 can obtain other food they will seldom attack man. The 

 Indians, however, assert that they often face a man boldly, 

 springing forward till within a few feet of him, and then, if the 

 man turns, they will attack him ; the hunters will sometimes 

 meet them thus face to face, and kill them with a cutlass. 

 They also destroy them with the bow and arrow, for which 

 purpose an old knife-blade is used for the head of the arrow ; 

 and they say it is necessary not to pull too strong a bow, or 

 the arrow will pass completely through the body of the animal, 

 and not do him so much injury as if it remains in the wound. 

 For the same reason, in shooting with a gun, they use rough 

 leaden cylinders instead of bullets, which make a larger and 

 rougher wound, and do not pass so readily quite through the 

 body. I heard of one case, of a jaguar entering an Indian's 

 house, and attacking him in his hammock. 



The jaguar, say the Indians, is the most cunning animal in 

 the forest : he can imitate the voice of almost every bird and 

 animal so exactly, as to draw them towards him : he fishes in 

 the rivers, lashing the water with his tail to imitate falling fruit, 

 and when the fish approach, hooks them up with his claws. 

 He catches and eats turtles, and I have myself found the 

 unbroken shells, which he has cleaned completely out with 

 his paws ; he even attacks the cow-fish in its own element, and 

 an eye-witness assured nie he had watched one dragging out 

 of the water this bulky animal, weighing as much as a large ox. 



A young Portuguese trader told me he had seen (what many 

 persons had before assured me often happened) an onga 

 feeding on a full-grown live alligator, tearing and eating its 

 tail. On leaving off, and retiring a yard or two, the alligator 



