Jaguar-Skin ÜuntIng-Baös, 
66 
round their necks as talismans, these animals uXust be fairly plentiful i,u 
the neighbourhood of Maripa. Only a few days before, close to the 
village, a jaguar had been killed : the canines testified to its huge size, 
for they were 'Si inches long and had a circumference of 3 inclies at the 
root. The Indians told us the strangest stories about the daring and 
rapacity of the jaguars of the Tuarutu and Vindaua Ranges, according 
to which they even attack men up there ; this did not appear to me to be 
specially far-fetched because both ranges hardly shelter any deer, and 
the bordering savannahs graze no Avild cattle-herds, A\ hie'h are only met 
again 100 miles further to the north, so that the blood thirsty animals 
are limited to but smaller quadrupeds such as agutis, labas, and 
pekaris. 
lai. I have already mentioned that the Indians make their hunting- 
bags almost alftvays out of jaguar and tiger-cat skins. Although on 
certain occasions I saw hundreds of Indians assembled it only very rarely 
happened that amongst their hunting-bags or on the skins forthcoming 
in tlieir settlements, I found two or three entirely corresponding with 
one another in pattern : the ground-colour of the pelt of some was more 
russet, of others more pale (greyish), and others again more brownish: 
the size of the rings also varied, according as some were more or less 
complete, nearer or farther apart, here lighter or darker, there distinctly 
or lightly dotted in the centre : indeed, the variation of pattern proceeds 
to such an extent that only rarely does one side of an animal correspond 
in exact pattern with the other. I accordingly consider it not unin- 
teresting to record here the notes and observations made by my brother 
and myself during the course of our travels in connection with the 
cat tribe, without thereby entering into too detailed a descrip- 
tion. Azara has given an excellent account of the life-history of the 
cats in general. Guiana possesses only two really mikiu types, 
represented on the one hand by the jaguar {Felis onca) and on the other 
by the iiuma {Felis concolor), of which the former at all events is the 
stronger, the more bloodthirsty, and at the same t*irae the larger. In 
the course of my brother's former trip there was found in the savannah 
on the bank of the Padauiri, a triliutary of the Rio ISTegro, a jaguar skele- 
ton which, inclusive of the tail, measured 9 feet long. Altliough in Biitish 
Guiana alone, there are present eight spotted and five spotless cats which 
are not only dul)bed with s]iecial names by the Indians but diffei' essen- 
tially in the colouring of the skin, their many differences in tlie nmrkings 
might be regarded ratlier as varieties than as true indications of species. 
Unfortunately we were unable to investigate by n^ean« of a complete 
specimen each .single one of the 13 dil'j'erentiated by the Indians: of the 
larger number avc managed to see only the skins and even tliese were in 
a mutilated condition. 
16;"). As I have already stated the jaguar (Felis onca Linn.) , the ti«er 
of the Colonists, Taikusi of the INIacusi is the most rapacious and conse- 
quently the most dangerous enemy of the cattle-herds, sheep-flocks and 
piggeries. We found it ^iith but slight change of colour from the coast 
to the equator. 
IGO. An essen tiallr different variety of it or species Y?) is tlie 
turtle-tiger of the Colonists. Its marking is almost always black, the 
