correspond but too well with those of his fellow cats already described,
and are only modified by his want of equal power. This deficiency is,
however, in a great measure supplied by the extreme pliability of his
spine, which gives to his motions a degree of velocity, agility, and
precision combined, that is altogether unequalled by any other quadruped,
and to which the greater lateral compression of his body, the increased
length and more slender proportions of his limbs, and the suppleness of
all his joints must of necessity materially contribute. Equally savage,
equally dastardly, and equally cruel, he closely imitates the manners
of the Lion and the Tiger, on a somewhat reduced, but still formidable,
scale. Antilopes, monkeys, and the smaller quadrupeds constitute his
usual prey, upon which he darts forth from his secret stand, and which
he pertinaciously pursues even upon the trees where they may have taken
refuge, climbing after them with surprising agility. Man he generally
endeavours, if possible, to avoid; but, when hard pressed, he fears not
to make head against the hunter; and it frequently requires the exertion
of no common share of skill and intrepidity in the latter to save
himself from the deadly fangs of the infuriated object of his pursuit.
Occasionally, indeed, the cravings of hunger stimulate the treacherous
animal to attack the unwary woodcutter, or the lone traveller whose path
has led to his secret haunts; but in this case he rarely, if ever, shows
himself openly in the face of day, but watches with insidious glare for
the fatal opportunity of springing upon his wretched victim from behind,
and of annihilating his power of resistance before it could possibly be
exerted in his defence.
In captivity, however, especially if taken while yet young, his character
frequently undergoes a change as favourable as that which takes place
under the same circumstances in the generality of his tribe. The pair at
present in the Tower are male and female; they are both Asiatic, and are
confined in the same den, but they differ very materially in temper and
disposition. The female, which is the older of the two, and has been a
resident in the Menagerie for upwards of four years, is exceedingly tame,
suffering herself to be patted and caressed by the keeper, and licking
his hands. Strangers, however, especially ladies, should be cautious of
approaching her too familiarly, as she has always evinced a particular
predilection for the destruction of umbrellas, parasols, muffs, hats,
and such other articles of dress as may happen to come within her reach,
seizing them with the greatest quickness and tearing them into pieces
almost before the astonished visiter has become aware of the loss. To
so great an extent has she carried this peculiar taste that Mr. Cops
declares that he has no doubt that during her residence in the Tower she
has made prey of at least as many of these articles as there are days in
the year. The agility with which she bounds round her cell, which is of
considerable size, touching at one leap, and almost with the velocity of
thought, each of its four walls, and skimming along the ceiling with the
same rapidity of action, which is scarcely to be followed by the eye,
is truly wonderful, and speaks more forcibly of the muscular power and
flexibility of limb by which such extraordinary motions are executed than
language can express.
The male, on the contrary, although he has been more than twelve months
an inmate of the Tower, is still as sullen and as savage as on the day of
his arrival. Notwithstanding the kind treatment which has been lavished
upon him by the keepers, he yet refuses to become familiarised with them,
and receives all their overtures at a nearer acquaintance with such sulky
and even angry symptoms as plainly evince that it would be dangerous to
tamper with his unreclaimed and unmanageable disposition. He is, as is
usual in all these animals, larger than the female, and much richer and
more beautiful in the style of his marking and depth of his colouring.
The two animals, however, although differing so greatly in temper, agree
together tolerably well, excepting only at meal times, when their usual
harmony is in some measure broken in upon by the jealousy with which they
regard each other’s share of the repast.
Their food consists of about five pounds of beef per day for each: this
the keeper generally tosses up in front of their den, at the distance
of nearly two feet from the bars, and to the height of six or eight
feet from the floor. The animals, who are on the alert for their dinner,
immediately leap towards the bars, and, darting out their paws with
incredible swiftness, almost uniformly succeed in seizing it before it
falls to the ground. If, as it sometimes happens, the meat is thrown
up at too great a distance, so as not to be fairly within reach, they
remain perfectly stationary and make no attempt to spring upon it, but
watch it with anxious avidity, apparently calculating and comparing the
distance of the object and the extent of their own grasp. When they
have, in this way, secured their meal, instead of ravenously falling
to, like the other carnivorous animals in the collection, they stand
growling over it for some minutes, leering upon each other with the most
frightful contortions. This growling attitude of mistrust in feeding was
constantly maintained by the female, even before she had a companion in
her captivity, and when consequently there existed no immediate object
for the excitement of her selfish or envious feelings.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
THE JAGUAR.
_FELIS ONCA._ LINN.
It can scarcely fail to have been remarked by those who have perused
the preceding pages with moderate attention that the species of cats
described in them, including the largest and most formidable of the whole
genus, are exclusively natives of the Old World, and confined to the hot
and burning climates of Southern Asia and of Africa. A second and more
numerous class, of which, however, no example exists at present in the
Tower Menagerie, and which, consequently, it does not fall within our
province to illustrate, occupy the colder and northern regions of both
hemispheres. These belong principally to the same subdivision with the
Lynx (being, like him, distinguished by the pencils of long hairs which
surmount their ears), and to that which comprehends the domestic cat; and
are all of diminutive size and trifling power when compared with those
monstrous productions of the torrid zone, the Lion, the Tiger, and the
Leopard. The reader is not, however, to imagine that the smaller species
exist only in the vicinity of the pole and in the temperate regions of
the earth: he will find, on the contrary, that many of them are natives
of more southern climes, and commit their petty ravages under as fierce
a sun as that which fires their more dreaded competitors in the career
of rapine and of blood. Of one of these, the true Lynx of antiquity, we
shall have occasion to treat in a subsequent article.
But there is also a third class which springs into existence in the
warmer climates of America, some of whose representatives almost equal
the Tiger in magnitude, in vigour, and in ferocity, while others rival
the Leopard in the beauty and sleekness of their fur, and in the agility
and gracefulness of their motions. Foremost of these, and holding the
highest rank among the most formidable animals of the New World, stands
the Jaguar, or, as he is sometimes called, the American Tiger. Superior
to the Leopard in size as well as in strength, he approaches very nearly
in both respects to the Lionesses of the smaller breeds: he is, however,
less elevated on his legs, and heavier and more clumsy in all his
proportions. His head is larger and rounder than that of the Leopard;
and his tail is considerably shorter in proportion, being only of
sufficient length to allow of its touching the ground when the animal is
standing, while that of the Leopard, as we have before observed, is very
nearly as long as his whole body. This disproportion between the length
of their tails affords perhaps the most striking distinction between
the two animals, offering, as it does, a constant and never-failing
criterion; whereas the difference in the marking of their furs, although
sufficiently obvious on a close examination, depends almost entirely
on such minute particularities as would probably escape the notice of
a superficial observer, and were in fact for a long time so completely
neglected, even by zoologists, that it is only within a few years that
we have been again taught accurately to distinguish between them. These
particularities we shall now proceed to point out.
On the whole upper surface of the body of the Jaguar the fur, which is
short, close, and smooth, is of a bright yellowish fawn; passing on the
throat, belly, and inside of the legs, into a pure white. On this ground
the head, limbs, and under surface are covered with full black spots
of various sizes; and the rest of the body with roses, either entirely
bordered by a black ring or surrounded by several of the smaller black
spots arranged in a circular form. The full spots are generally continued
upon the greater part of the tail, the tip of which is black, and which
is also encircled near its extremity by three or four black rings. So far
there is little to distinguish the marking of the Jaguar from that of
the Leopard; we come now to the differences observable between them. The
spots which occupy the central line of the back in the former are full,
narrow, and elongated; and the roses of the sides and haunches, which are
considerably larger and proportionally less numerous than in the Leopard,
are all or nearly all marked with one or sometimes two black dots or
spots of smaller size towards their centre: an apparently trifling,
but constant and very remarkable distinction, which exists in no other
species. By this peculiarity alone the Jaguar may at once be recognised;
and this external characteristic, together with the extreme shortness
of his tail, his much greater size, his comparatively clumsy form, and
the heaviness of all his motions, not to speak of the peculiarity of
his voice, which has the sharp and harsh sound of an imperfect bark,
are unquestionably fully sufficient to sanction his separation from
a race of animals, from which, however much he may resemble them in
general characters, he differs in so many and such essential particulars.
That this separation has been made more complete by the hand of Nature
herself, who has interposed the wide ocean between him and those of his
fellows with whom alone there is any probability of his being confounded,
is an additional proof, if any confirmation were wanting, of the
soundness of the distinction which has been drawn between them.
It is in the swampy forests of South America that the Jaguar commits
his destructive ravages, which are spread over nearly the whole of
that continent from Paraguay almost to the Isthmus of Darien. It has
frequently been said that he is also to be found in Mexico; but this
appears to be a mistake, originating probably in Buffon’s having
confounded the Jaguar with the Ocelot, describing and figuring the latter
under the name of the former, and intermingling with his description many
of the peculiar traits of the real Jaguar derived from the relations
of travellers. On the other hand he has erroneously figured the latter
animal under the name of the Panther; a mistake in which he has been
followed by Pennant and others, and with which the writings of zoologists
are more or less infected even up to the present day. What the Panther of
the ancients actually was, or whether there exists any real difference
between it and the Leopard, is a much disputed question, into which we
have neither space nor inclination to enter: certain it is that it could
not possibly have been the present animal, which has never been found out
of the limits of America; and that Buffon himself had no idea, while he
was figuring the latter, that the specimen before him was not a native of
Africa or the East. The name of Jaguar is corruptedly derived from the
Brazilian appellation of the animal, to which the Portuguese have given
the name of Onça; another blunder, for the Ounce of the Old World is now
universally allowed to be identical with the Leopard, and with the latter
we have already shown that it is impossible that the American species can
be conjoined.
Like the Cats already described, to whom, however, he is much inferior
in the suppleness and elasticity of his motions, the Jaguar makes
his solitary haunt in the recesses of the forest, especially in the
neighbourhood of large rivers, which he swims with the greatest
dexterity. Of the extent of this faculty, as well as of his extraordinary
strength, some judgment may be formed from a circumstance related by
D’Azara, which fell partly under that traveller’s personal observation;
namely, that a Jaguar, after having attacked and destroyed a horse,
carried the body of his victim for about sixty paces to the bank of a
broad and deep river, over which he swam with his prey, and then dragged
it into the adjoining wood. According to M. Sonnini he is as expert at
climbing as at swimming. “I have seen,” he says, “in the forests of
Guiana, the prints left by the claws of the Jaguar on the smooth bark of
a tree from forty to fifty feet in height, measuring about a foot and a
half in circumference, and clothed with branches near its summit alone.
It was easy to follow with the eye the efforts which the animal had made
to reach the branches: although his talons had been thrust deeply into
the body of the tree, he had met with several slips, but he had always
recovered his ground, and, attracted no doubt by some favourite object of
prey, had at length succeeded in gaining the very top.”
Endowed with such tremendous powers it is no wonder that this formidable
animal is regarded with terror by the inhabitants of the countries which
he infests. He seldom, however, attacks the human race; although he does
not appear to shun it with any peculiar dread. His onset is always made
from behind, and in the same treacherous manner as that of all his tribe;
of a herd of animals or of a band of men passing within his reach, he
uniformly singles out the last as the object of his fatal bound. When he
has made choice of his victim he springs upon its neck, and, placing one
of his paws upon the back of its head while he seizes its muzzle with
the other, twists its head round with a sudden jerk, which dislocates
its spine and deprives it instantaneously of life and motion. His
favourite game appears to be the larger quadrupeds, such as oxen, horses,
sheep, and dogs, whom he attacks indiscriminately and almost always
successfully, when urged by the powerful cravings of his maw. At other
times he is indolent and cowardly, secretes himself in caverns, skulks in
the depths of the forest, and is scared by the most trifling causes.
The Spaniards and even the native Indians appear to take a pleasure in
hunting the Jaguar, whom they attack in various ways. One of the most
common is to chase him with a numerous pack of dogs, who, although they
dare not attack so formidable an opponent, frequently succeed in driving
him to seek refuge on a tree or in a thick copse. Should he trust himself
to the former, he is usually destroyed by the musket or the lance; but
if he has taken covert among the bushes, it is sometimes difficult to
aim at him with precision. In this latter case some of the Indians are
hardy enough to attack him single-handed; a perilous exploit, which,
according to D’Azara, they perform in the following manner. Armed only
with a lance, of five feet in length, they envelope their left arm
in a sheep-skin, by means of which they evade the first onset of the
furious animal, and gain sufficient time to plunge their weapon into his
body before he can turn upon them for a second attack. Another mode of
destroying him is by means of the lasso; but this method can of course
be employed only when the animal roams abroad upon the plains, or can be
driven by the dogs into an open space fit for the purpose. Riding at full
gallop with the lasso coiled up in their hands, these excellent horsemen
will throw the noose with such certainty and precision as infallibly to
secure their formidable enemy at the distance of a hundred paces, and to
place him completely at their mercy.
The Jaguar is generally said to be quite untameable, and to maintain
his savage ferocity even in a state of captivity, showing no symptoms
of attachment to those who have the care of him. This assertion is
amply contradicted by the fact that an individual confined in the Paris
Menagerie, was exceedingly mild in his temper, and particularly fond
of licking the hands of those with whom he was familiar; as was also
remarkably the case with the specimen lately in the Tower, whose portrait
ornaments the present article. This animal was obtained by Lord Exmouth
while on the American station, and accompanied the expedition to Algiers
at the memorable bombardment of that nest of pirates. On his return
to England, his Lordship gave it to the Marchioness of Londonderry,
who soon afterwards presented it to his Majesty, by whose order it was
placed in the Tower; where it continued until a short time since, when it
unfortunately died. Mr. Cops is, however, in expectation of being soon
enabled to replace it. It was exhibited under the name of the Panther, an
appellation which we have before stated that the Jaguar had erroneously
obtained, not only among the furriers, by whom it is universally so
called, but even among scientific zoologists.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
THE PUMA.
_FELIS CONCOLOR._ LINN.
Nearly approaching to the Jaguar in size and form, but obviously
distinguished from him at the first glance, by the total absence of
spots, the Puma, Couguar, or, as he was once called, the American Lion,
occupies the second place among the cats of the New World, over nearly
the whole of which he was formerly spread, from Canada and the United
States in the North, to the very extremity of Patagonia in the South.
From a large portion of this immense expanse of country he appears,
however, to have been of late years in a great measure, if not entirely,
rooted out; and it is seldom that he is now heard of in the vicinity
of that civilization, which involves, as a necessary consequence,
either the complete extinction, or, at least, the gradual diminution and
dispersion to more secure and sheltered habitations, of all the more
savage and obnoxious beasts. For his title of the American Lion he was,
in a great degree, indebted to an absurd notion on the part of the early
colonists, which was even shared by many naturalists, that he was, in
reality, neither more nor less than a degenerate variety of that far more
noble animal. This opinion has, however, long since given way before
the prevalence of sounder views; and he is now universally recognised
as forming a species clearly distinguishable from every other, by a
combination of characters which it is impossible to mistake.
Almost the only striking point of resemblance between him and the Lion
consists in the uniform sameness of his colour, which on the upper parts
of his body is of a bright silvery fawn, the tawny hairs being terminated
by whitish tips: beneath and on the inside of the limbs he is nearly
white, and more completely so on the throat, chin, and upper lip. The
head has an irregular mixture of black and gray; the outside of the ears,
especially at the base, the sides of the muzzle from which the whiskers
take their origin, and the extremity of the tail, are black. The latter
is not terminated, as in the Lion, by a brush of hair; neither has the
Puma any vestige of a mane. His length from the tip of the nose to the
root of the tail is commonly about four feet, and his tail measures above
half as much more, being just sufficiently long to suffer its extremity
to trail upon the ground. His head is remarkably small and rounded, with
a broad and somewhat obtuse muzzle; and his body is proportionably more
slender and less elevated than that of the Lion. His young, like those
of the latter animal, have a peculiar livery, consisting in spots of a
darker shade than the rest of their fur, scattered over every part of the
body, but only visible in a particular light, and disappearing entirely
at the adult age. There is no difference whatever in colour between the
sexes, the fur of the female being in every respect similar to that of
the male: in size the latter is superior to his mate; and his head, a
part which in the female is disproportionately small, corresponds better
with the general form of his body.
More circumspect, or rather more cowardly, than any of the larger species
of his cautious tribe, he is, notwithstanding his much greater magnitude,
scarcely more dangerous than the common wild cat, preying only upon
the smaller species of animals, seldom venturing to attack any living
creature of greater size or courage than a sheep, and flying from the
face of man with more than usual terror. But this cowardice is also, in a
state of nature, connected with a degree of ferocity, fully equal to that
which is developed in the most savage and blood-thirsty of his fellow
cats. Unlike the Jaguar, which generally contents itself with a single
victim, the Puma, if he should happen to find himself undisturbed in the
midst of a flock of sheep, deserted by their guardians and left entirely
at his mercy, is said never to spare, but to destroy every individual
that he can reach, for the purpose of sucking its blood. He differs also
from the Jaguar in his habit of frequenting the open plain rather than
the forest and the river, in and near which the latter usually takes his
secret and destructive stand. Hence he is more exposed to the pursuit of
the skilful thrower of the lasso, from whom, as his swiftness is by no
means great and his timidity excessive, he rarely escapes.
In captivity the Puma readily becomes tame, and may even be rendered
docile and obedient. His manners closely resemble those of the domestic
cat; like it he is extremely fond of being noticed, raises his back and
stretches his limbs beneath the hand that caresses him, and expresses
his pleasure by the same quiet and complacent purring. They soon become
attached to those with whom they are familiar; and numerous instances
might be mentioned in which they have been suffered to roam almost at
large about the house without any injurious results. One of these is no
doubt familiar to many of our readers, occurring as it did under the
roof of Mr. Kean, the tragedian, who possessed an animal of this species
so tame as to follow him about almost like a dog, and to be frequently
introduced into his drawing-room, when filled with company, at perfect
liberty.
The Puma figured above is a female, about three years old, exceedingly
sleek in her fur and lively in her colours, and equally mild and
good-tempered with any of her race.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
THE OCELOT.
_FELIS PARDALIS._ LINN.