under proper officers, to deal with reptiles and animals of a destructive character. However depressed the state of the Indian finances may be at any time, it would be the worst economy to withhold the small annual expenditure of about £12,000, which has thus far effected a marked diminution in loss of life and property, while it might with advantage be raised to double the amount.

Although the intelligence of the cat family is far inferior to that of many other mammals, surprising cunning is sometimes evinced by them. An interesting example of this is given by the author of " Sport and Work on the Nepaul Frontier," a writer who is evidently an attentive observer as well as a keen sportsman. Tigers, he affirms, will often crouch flat on the earth for the purpose of concealing themselves during a “beat,” even when a line of elephants is trampling down the jungle close to them in every direction. He also mentions a much more remarkable instance of their sagacity. A tiger, being closely pursued, was suddenly lost sight of near a pool of water, and almost given up, when it was perceived totally immersed in the water with the exception of its nose, eyes, and ears, within a few yards of the sportsman, who forthwith gave it its quietus. The beast might have been thought to be dead had it not sprung from the water at the first shot, and only succumbed on receiving a second through the spine.

Probably the most ferocious of the great cats is their largest representative on the American continent-the jaguar. One cannot but be impressed by its sullen and savage demeanour, even in captivity, while its prodigious muscular development is suggestive of the possession of even greater relative strength than the tiger. In South America its common prey, the capybara (or "carpincho," as the natives call it), that great amphibious rodent with the aspect of a Guinea pig, must tax the energies of its captor to the utmost; for, though unprovided with any offensive weapons, the capybara is exceedingly strong and bulky. Some specimens which I have shot were so heavy that two men could not carry them. Founding his opinion on common

The Jaguar and Puma.

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report, and the fact that he had seen in Patagonia the skeletons of guanacos with, their necks dislocated, Darwin believed that the jaguar springs upon the shoulder of its prey, and by dragging back the head with one paw, breaks the neck, and he ascribes a similar habit to the puma. If this is the method of attack on the capybara, it implies very great strength indeed; the neck of that animal is very short and thick, and its general proportions similar to those of the hippopotamus.

Nothing on or above the earth comes amiss to the jaguar; he climbs with the agility of a cat, and it has been maintained that he lives to a large extent on fish when haunting the jungles of the large rivers. His unquestionable boldness has given rise to many travellers' tales, among them one to the effect that he lies in wait on an overhanging branch above a road or forest pathway, and pounces on the unfortunate passer-by. However this may be, jaguars have walked into towns and killed people, and surprised men left in charge of boats by swimming from shore and climbing on board. During floods in such large rivers as the Parana, the jaguars collect in numbers on the islands, or are brought down on rafts of drift timber, and stranded perhaps close to a settlement, Being driven desperate with hunger, they will then attack man or beast at every opportunity.

Inferior in every respect to the jaguar is its congener, the puma, which is seldom guilty of man-eating. It happened to myself, however, to encounter one of these animals in a jungle on the La Plata, in circumstances which might have ended in manslaughter at least. Although I had been duly warned of the presence of a “lion” in the reedy ground near the river, I could not resist the temptation of going out early in the morning to pick up a few snipe or teal in a favourite spot. The still, misty atmosphere recalled an autumn morning on the banks of the Thames, and nothing was further from my thoughts than the unpleasant reminder about to be made to me, that this was a small tributary of that mighty stream which drains the whole of South America from the fifteenth to the thirtyfifth parallel of latitude, and swarms with dangerous game.

Hearing a flight of ducks pass overhead, but invisible for the thick jungle, I listened for the splash as they settled on the water, and was then proceeding to stalk them, when a slight rustling of the reeds arrested my attention, and a puma sprang into a small clear spot, and crouched scarcely ten yards from me. For a moment the reflection that I carried only a No. 12 smooth bore, loaded with No. 6 shot, almost unnerved me; but I fired point blank into the beast's face as the only means of averting the impending spring, and threw myself on the ground, in the hope of avoiding the charge.

The shot had told with terrible effect; the puma reeled, fell, and struggled violently in the attempt to keep its legs, tearing the earth with its claws, and exhibiting the impotent rage of a powerful animal in its death agony. The struggle lasted for a minute or two, perhaps, while I could get no opportunity of firing the second barrel to advantage, and ended in the convulsive twitching of the limbs which betokens the certainty of approaching death. When all was still, I examined my unexpected prize, and found it to be a splendid female. The destruction wrought by that single charge of shot was astonishing. The face was completely shattered, several pellets having penetrated the brain, and destroyed both eyes. No doubt she had gone to the river to drink, and had not heard me until I was so close as to render a meeting inevitable, with the result of which I have every reason to be well satisfied.

The leopards or panthers of Asia and Africa, though far inferior in size to the tiger or jaguar, are nevertheless formidable even to human life on occasion, and add to their destructive powers by their ability to pursue their prey, such as monkeys -of which they are very fond-among the branches of trees. This habit, on the other hand, renders it easy to drive them to a tree with dogs, when they are killed without danger to the hunter. That they add considerably to the loss of life in India appears sufficiently clear from the official report for 1881, which gives the number of persons killed by leopards in that year as 239; while in some years they have destroyed more