THE SAVAGE WORLD. 
661 
The Jaguar, or American Tiger (Feh's onca), is nearly as large as the 
tiger and quite as fierce. His sinewy body is marked with long black stripes, 
except when, as in the case 
of thighs and legs, he ex¬ 
changes the stripes for 
spots. His head is round 
and large, his legs short 
and stout, and on the belly 
his color passes into a pale 
-yellow. He prefers the 
jungle and the marsh, for 
while dependent for the 
most part upon the herb¬ 
eating animals, he never 
objects to a mess of fish 
which he quite frequently 
secures for himself. As a 
rule the jaguar will not 
attack man, but when he 
does he is an enemy to 
be dreaded. It is four or 
five feet long, with an ad¬ 
ditional allowance of two 
feet for the tail, and it 
stands about two feet from 
the ground. It is yellow 
colored with roundish black 
spotted figures lying in parallel lines. Its white belly sets off the rest of its 
coloring, and renders its skin very beau¬ 
tiful. It is very stoutly built and its 
immense head is furnished with jaws 
which seem capable of indefinite expan¬ 
sion. It is an expert climber and leads 
the monkey tribe many a merry dance. 
Its appetite is voracious, and ho viand 
is treated contemptuously. It is sur¬ 
prisingly noiseless and stealthy, and 
always makes its attack from behind. 
Its patience is unwearying, and it will 
for days stalk the traveller hoping for 
an unwary moment. The adventures 
ascribed by poets to the lion and tiger 
are even more appropriate for the jaguar , 
with whom it is an ordinary event to 
throw itself on the neck of a giraffe, 
zebra or antelope, and drive it at full 
MEXICAN JAGUAR. , , id Tj . 1 
speed to its death. It is properly a 
tropical. American animal, but has worked its way as far north as Texas. 
When it feels an appetite for fish, it baits the finny tribe with its saliva, and 
