80 MAMMALS.

single pull, and making but a mouthful or two of the
contents. He is a big handsome fellow, over six feet
long, tail and all, and is as often killed with the lasso
or bolas as with dogs and poisoned arrows. He is
notoriously noisy, roaring much by night, and espe-
cially before bad weather.

A significant habit on the part of the jaguar
is noticed by Darwin: ‘One day, when hunting
on the banks of the Uruguay, I was shown certain
trees to which these animals constantly recur for the
purpose, as it is said, of sharpening their claws. I
saw three well-known trees; in front the bark was
worn smooth, as if by the breast of the animal, and
on each side there were deep scratches, or rather
grooves, extending in an oblique line, nearly a yard
in length. The scars were of different ages. A
common method of ascertaining whether a jaguar is
in the neighbourhood is to examine these trees. I
imagine this habit of the jaguar is exactly similar to
one which may any day be seen in the common cat,
as, with outstretched legs and exserted claws, it
scrapes the leg of a chair; and I have heard of
young fruit-trees in an orchard in England having
been thus much injured. Some such habit must also
be common to the puma, for on the bare, hard soil of
Patagonia I have frequently seen scores so deep that
no other animal could have made them. The object
of this practice is, I believe, to tear off the ragged
points of their claws, and not, as the gauchos think,
to sharpen them.’

The jaguar is the tiger of the New World ; the
puma is the lion. The puma (/. concolor) ranges