M. le Brun had a female Jaguar of New Spain (_fig. 105._) sent him
in the year 1775; it appeared very young, and was much less than the
one described in the original work, this measuring one foot eleven
inches long, and the former two feet five inches; there was a great
resemblance between them, and the differences only such as are common
to the varieties of the same species. The ground colour of the one we
are now speaking of was a dirty grey intermixed with red: the spots
were yellow, bordered with black; its head yellow, and ears black, with
a white spot on the external part.
Among a number of excellent remarks made by M. Sonnini de Manoncour,
respecting the jaguars of Guiana, he says, "the hair of the young
jaguar is not frizzled, as stated by M. de Buffon, but perfectly
smooth, and with regard to their only equalling the size of an ordinary
dog, I have had the skin of one that measured near five feet from
the nose to the tail, which was two feet long; and from the tracks I
have seen of these animals I have little doubt of the American tigers
being as large as those of Africa, except the royal tiger, the largest
animal to which that name is given; for the panther, which M. de
Buffon considers the largest, does not exceed five or six feet when
full grown, and it is certain that some of these animals exceed those
dimensions. When young their colour is a deep yellow, which becomes
lighter as they advance in years. He is not by any means an indolent
animal; he constantly attacks dogs, commits great devastation among
flocks, and in the desarts is even formidable to men. In a journey
I made through these forests, we were tormented with one for three
successive nights, and yet he avoided all our attempts to destroy him;
but finding we kept up large fires, of which they are much afraid, he
at last left us with a dismal howling. At Cayenne the natives have an
idea that the jaguar would rather destroy them than the whites, but
it is not so with the savages, with whom I have travelled through the
desarts, and never found them to have any particular terror; they slept
as we did, with their hammocks suspended, making a little fire under
them, which often went out before the morning; and, in short, took no
particular precautions, where they knew themselves surrounded with
those animals. (This, observes M. Buffon, is a strong proof that they
are not very dangerous animals to men.) The flesh of the jaguar is not
good. All the animals of the new continent fly from him, not being able
to withstand his power: the only one capable of making any tolerable
resistance is the ant-eater, who, on being attacked, turns on his back,
and often preserves himself by the strength of his long claws."