GENUS FELIS OF AMERICA. 
|69 
The feline animals belonging to the American Continent 
are numerous, and have generally been ill-described by 
naturalists. Indeed there appears to be a singular preju- 
dice respecting them in the minds of many zoologists. Be- 
cause neither the lion nor the tiger (the monarchs of the 
forest in the Old World) are found in America, it was a 
favourite dogma with a celebrated author, that the beasts 
of prey of the New Continent were inferior in courage and 
ferocity to those animals of the Old World, which they 
most nearly resembled. It is true, that none of the beasts 
of prey of America equal in size and power the lion of 
Africa, or the great tiger of Bengal : but the jaguar, the 
puma, and black tiger of South America, equal in courage 
and ferocity the panther, leopard, and onca, the animals of 
the other Continents which they approach most nearly in 
size and habit. 
BuFFON, and some other writers, have described the 
jaguar and puma as destructive to other quadrupeds ; but 
as cowardly, and fleeing from the approach of man. It is 
now well ascertained that Buffon has confounded the 
true jaguar of South America with the ocelot, a much 
smaller and less formidable animal ; and his account of the 
puma seems to be taken from the descriptions of those who 
have only seen the animal in the vicinity of human civilisa- 
tion. That eloquent writer has admitted the commanding 
influence of the experience of human prowess in subduing 
the courage of even his favourite animal the lion. A 
single lion of the desert will frequently attack a whole 
caravan; and if, after a violent and obstinate encounter, 
he experiences fati^-ue, instead of flying, he retreats fight- 
ing with a bold front to his pursuers. Those lions, on the 
contrary, who dwell in the neighbourhood of the towns 
and villages of India and Barbary, being acquainted with 
man, and having felt the power of his weapons, have lost 
