Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1902-09-04

/, ike tne nfst, are also night animals,
but prey more upon birds, poultry,
small animals, etc., than they do upon
fish, and seldom go about the water
The Yaguarondi cat was first dis
covered by the old Jesuit naturalist
Azara at the time that Order was en-
gagged in setting up missions for the
Indians in Paraguay and Brazil, and
he gave it the name that it now bears.
He describes it in his book on the
fauna of La Plata Valley, and when
the scientific men who some sixty
years ago accompanied the survey of
the Southern Pacific Railroad AMI the
Mexican boundary survey heard from
the natives of the Rio Grande Valley
of the existence of the Cacomictl cat
they concluded from its description
that it was AZara's Yaguarondi cat, and
SO stated the matter in the reports
they wrote on their return to the east
It was not, however, unt;i about ten
years ago that the biologists of the
National Museum were able to secure
specimen of the Rio Grande animal,
which is now to be seen stuffed and
mounted in the institution aforesaid,
and when this happened they saw at
glance that it was not the Yaguar-
ordi cat of Azara, but an entirely new
animal The Indians of the Rio Grande
Valley called the animal the "Cacom-
ictl," word of doubtful or unknown
significance, and, with due regard for
local terms, the biologists forthwith
named the animal "Felis Cacomictl."
Notwithstanding this discovery and
remaining, the majority of those who
are at all familiar with the animal con-
tinue still to espeak of the latter as
the "Yaguarondi cat" just as people
further east persist in calling certain
variety of marmot a ground hog"
when there is no hog about it, for the
same general reason that the animal
was first known under such a name.
On viewing the unusually fine pair of
Cacomictl cats at the Zoo most peo-
pie would be inclined to the view that
this species represents a departure
from the normal of the cat family,
and that in the Cacomictl cat one sees
a case of adaptation of an extreme
form; that is to say, in time past the
Cacomictl cat has been driven by
stress of circumstances, or necessity,
to get its living out of the water.
Those individuals that, in FORM were
more like offers, could swim faster,
dive better and see fish quicker sur
vived, and thus in the struggle for
existence finally evolved a race of
cats with bodies and heads like those
of an otter or mink. But it is more
than likely that, instead of this being
the case, the Cacomictl cat is the
most primitive form of the feline race
in the world. and that instead of hav-
ing been vastly modified from the
generality of felines as they are now
known, the Cacomictl cat has, of all
members of its family, changed the
least in the centuries since the dawn
CT the Eocene period The reason for
this view is as follows:
1t is fact well known to biologists
aid psychologists that instead of
being the New World" North Amer
lea is, in reality, the Oldest dry land
on the globe, and the region in which
the old parent forms of the horse,
elephant, rhi2oceros and cat family,
whose modified offspring migrated in
to Asia, Africa and Europe via the
Behring Strait route, thus becoming
extinct on this continent, were Arst.
evolved
The parent of all modern cats, such
as the tiger, leopard puma, jaguar,
lynx, ounce, ETC., was one of several
animals that, in the Eocene period, in
habited the dense tropical jungles
surrounding certain large fresh water
lakes where now are the great plains
of the west, in the underlying rock of
which their remains are now found
This strange animal psychologists
have named Partiofelis ferox, which,
literally translated from scientific
cat" There is now, of course, no way
OF telling just what the old original
father cat looked like; whether he was
striped like the tiger, as some have
held, or whether he had spots like
the leopard, which others have con-
tended are the most primitive of all
cat markings; but, although as large
as modern lion, we do not know. by
! an examination of its bones, that in
form and habits it bore closer resem-
blance to the Cacomictl cat than to
any other of it's modern descendants.
While the skull, teeth and certain
other parts show plainly that it was a
cat of the cats, there are on or two of
| the bones, notably those of the skoul-
der and hips, SO strikingly those of the
seal that when first discovered they
! were mistaken for those of come ami
NAL CT the seal or sea lion kind, nor
was this view upset until the rest o.
the remains were found.
Moreover, the caudal vertetrae
showed that the animal had a tail like
ar otter, while other things con-
tributed to prove clearly and beyond
all question that the first cat, instead
of being a denizen of high and dry
places like the majority of its modern
descendants, was an amphibious ani.
NAL, spending most of it's time in the
water. Now, although the Cacomictl