Page:A narrative of travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro.djvu/356

 316 ZOOLOGY OF

Viripes i A wild dog, or fox, of the forests ; it hunts in

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

Leopardus concolor. The Puma. In the Lingoa Geral, Sasurana, " the false deer," from its colour.

L. on^a. The Jaguar. Jauarite, (Lingoa Geral). — "The Great Dog."

L. onga, var. nigra. The Black Jaguar. Jauarite pixuna, (Lingoa Geral). Tigre (Spaniards).

L.pichis andZ.gr/seus. 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 me 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