JAGUAR, ja-gwar' ( from Brazilian jeguare), Felis once. The largest, fiercest. and most in teresting of all the wild-eats of the new world. It is decidedly heavier than the puma, though the measurements usually given do not serve to bring out the difference. An average jaguar is six or seven feet long, of which one-third or more is tail; the girth back of the shoulders is about three feet ; the head is disproportionately large, and the limbs are massive. In color there is a very Wide range of diversity, from a ground of dirty white or yellowish to almost black, southern animals being the lightest. In all cases, however, there mire distinct and very character istic markings, not unlike those of the leopard: Ina in the jaguar the rings cover more ground, are inclined to be more angular and broken, and each ring ineloses one or more dark spots. See Plate of Men CATS. accompanying article CAT.
The jaguar is found distributed very generally throughout South America. except in the colder parts of Patagonia (beyond latitude 40° S.), and on the highest mountains; it extends north ward (or recently did) as far as Texas, and pos sibly even into Louisiana and Arkansas, but ap parently it has never crossed the Mississippi—at least not so as to get any foothold. The black variety is most common in Guiana. where it is sometimes called 'tapir tiger,' from its supposed fondness for tapirs as an article of food. The skull may easily he distinguished by a promi nent tubercle on the anterior or nasal edge of the orbit.
The jaguar is essentially an animal of the forest. remarkably fond of water: so that the half-flooded jungles of the Amazon Valley are its true and most suitable home, and there, in the season when large districts are sub merged. it easily maintains for weeks together an almost entirely arboreal life. Nevertheless, a race of jaguars exists on the Pampas, a cold, treeless, and waterle, desert. where they lurk in the tall grass or river-side thickets, working destruction among the ranehmen's horses, cattle. and sheep, and pouncing upon deer and the smaller mammals and reptiles of the region. An
other curious fact is the enmity between the jaguar and the puma of the plains (and perhaps elsewhere). leading to constant battles in which the jaguar is likely to he worsted by its more active and aggressive antagonist. Foxes and wolves torment the big beast also, by folhuving it about in hope of feeding upon the remains of its feasts, as jackals attend the African lion.
Jaguars are likely to remain in certain locali ties. in the vicinity of which they prowl at night, lying asleep or in ambush most of the daylight hours, and they seldom 3:U:irk man unless pro voked. They feed chiefly upon mammals and large reptiles. Monkeys and capybaras make a large part of the diet. Deer, sloths, tapirs, and inana tel'A are also hunted, but peccaries arc Fe Won' attacked. The jaguar is sometimes killed by the great anteaters. whose sabre-like claws tear its bowels open even while the anteater itself is in the throes of death. Along the tropical rivers the jaguars wait for and seize turtles that come ashore to lay their eggs, turn them over, and gnaw them out of their shells. Even alligators and boas are seized, killed, find de voured, and jaguars are expert at snatehing fish from overhanging banks. .Much of this prey requires hard chasing; but the animal prefers to lie upon the low limb of a tree, or the top of a rock commanding some game-trail or drink ing,-place, and thence to leap upon its victims. The female jaguar usually produces two or three kittens at a birth, which arc as beautiful and playful as young leopards. These have some times Leen tamed, but this species is perhaps the most savage and intractable of the great eats, and the kittens become dangerous with increasing years.
The fullest account of this eat is by J. A. Porter in Wild Beasts York, 1894). Sec also Bates, 7'he Naturalist on the Amazon (Lon don, 186:3) : Wallace, Travels on the Amazon ( London, 1889) ; Hudson, 7'he Naturalist in Le Plata (London, 1892) ; Alston. "Mammals," in Selater and Sal•in's Biologie Centrali-ztmericana (London, 1879-92).