led to take to flight.

It catches fish as it does the manatee, suddenly thrusting forth its
talons as they pass below it; while it scrapes up the turtle's eggs in
numbers. It even pounces on birds and lizards, in spite of their
activity and means of escape; and, when pressed by hunger, it will
attack a native village, and carry off, not only fowls and other tame
animals, but the children, and sometimes full-grown people, whom it may
catch unawares.

Darwin says, that when the floods drive these animals to drier ground,
they are most dangerous; and mentions many instances of people being
destroyed by them. On the Parana they have been known to get on board
vessels at night. He heard of a man who, coming up from below when it
was dark, was seized on the deck by a jaguar. He escaped, however, with
the loss of the use of an arm. At Santa Fe, two padres entering, one
after the other, a church into which a jaguar had made its way, were
both killed. A third, who came to see what was the matter, escaped with
difficulty. The beast was destroyed by being shot at from a corner of
the building which was unroofed.

The gauchos say, that when wandering at night, it is frequently followed
by foxes yelping at its heels. If such is the case, it is a curious
coincidence with the fact, generally affirmed, that jackals accompany
the East Indian tiger.

The jaguar often leaves marks on the bark of trees, which it scrapes for
the purpose of tearing off the rugged parts of its claws; a habit common
also to the puma, as Darwin says he frequently found in Patagonia scores
so deep on the hard soil, that no other animal could have made them.

Brett mentions several instances which came under his notice of human
beings being killed by jaguars. A Carib Indian had gone into the forest
to procure touari,--the inner bark of the sapucaya-nut tree, of the thin
papery layers of which the Indians form the envelopes of their
cigarettes. While employed in cutting off the long strips of the bark,
on turning round he discovered a jaguar stealthily approaching. His
friends, as he did not return, set out in search of him. For a whole
day they searched in vain; but on the second they discovered his
foot-tracks, and those of a large jaguar. Following these for a long
way in anxious suspense, they at length came to a spot where there were
marks of a conflict, and they discovered their comrade's bow lying
broken on the ground. Still it was appar