The flARJE Black Jaguak. 
6? 
hill bordering on it. Like the jaguar, the puma appears to have a special 
fondness for dogs which it waylays in every kind of manner, but should 
it however be pursued by them, it immediately seeks safety up a tree, 
where it can usually be shot without any danger. Equally greedy of prey 
it follows the trooi)s of Pekari aufl with sure spring suddenly attacks 
the stragglers, but takes good care not to direct its attentions on the 
middle of the troo]>, liecause it would have to pay for such a criminal 
undertaking with its life. The female throws two young evei-y time: 
dark spots can already be distinguished on them. 
1G8. The Wilibisiri-Arowa is also an unspotted cat which never- 
theless is described as very rare. Its colour is given as light grey, 
approaching to white on the body and breast, just as the tail is said not 
to have the black tip of the puma. Tlie Indians, as already mentioned, 
call the snvallest species of deer present in Guiana, the Wilibisiri, and it 
is this one that the tiger in question particularly hunts for. It is pro- 
bably Felis inticolor'? 
169. The HaccaArowa of the Indians {Felis Yaguorundi) which I 
often came across is somewhat larger than our house-cat: its colour is a 
dark grey-black Avhich on the belly passes into a mouse-coloured grey. 
The tail has also no rings. It receives its name from the glutton (Giilo 
barhnnis) . the liacca of the Arawaks which it resembles in its colouring. 
170. iStill more feared than the ordinary jaguar and puma is the 
black jaguar, the black tiger of the Colonists. Whether it is only a 
variety of the ordinary Fells onca I must leave to the decision of zoolo- 
gists: according to my conviction, however, it is to be regarded as more 
than such, as a distinct species, since it is distinguished not only by its 
absolutely ditierent colouring, but particularly also by size both from 
the punui as well as from the jaguar. The brilliant black velvet-like 
shade and the still l)lacker complete pattern which one can only see, how- 
ever, when the light falls at a particular angle on the pelt, makes it one 
of the most beautiful skins that can be fonnd. The animal must be 
exceedingly rare because during the Avhole of my stay among the Indians, 
I only found twO' skins but never saAv the cat itself. The one pelt was 
on the Morocco, Avhere the animal had liecu killed liy an lu«1i;in in the 
neighbourhood of the mission,* tlie sercmd at Fort Sao Joaquim ; but 
on both occasions they Avere so mutilated by the cutting off of the feet, 
that they were of no use for dflinite fletermänalion. Judging from the 
intervening distance at Avhich the animal in hoih cases had l)een killed, 
it must be distributed from the coast to the equator. On the Demerara 
it is said to be not rare: there the Indians call it IMaipuri-Arowa because 
it is specially fond of waylaying the ta]ur. Its tail is considerably longer 
than that of the ordinary jaguar: in its formation of skull it seems rather 
to approximate the ])uma. The Indians are not as much afi-aid of all the 
others put together as they are of the black one alone, because it will 
attack human beings by day or night just as blood-thirstily as it will the 
Tapir and cattle. 'According to all accounts the Felis onca and F. con- 
♦About eight years ago I saw two hlark tiger-cubs at AVnrramuri Mission, Moruca River. 
They were but a week or two old, and had been found within tlie roots of a Mora tree that 
the Indians had been felling : they only survived a few days. (Ed.) 
