The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1910-07-09
The Black Ja8uar.
By PAUL J. FAIR.


In the hall of mammals of the
Museu Goeldi, in Para. there is q
glass case containing the mounted
form Of a great black jaguar-onca
preta, the Brazilian guard called It.
Crouching low, it grasps a fawn
which lies, with yet unglazed eyes
the delicate prey of the monster
whose jetty black rosettes are only a
little darker than the ground color
of his coat.
The striking appearance of the
brute led me to question the guard,
He told me that it had been cap
tive of the geological garden connect
ed with the museum, a sullen cap
tive, that confinement speedily told
upon, and soon left a candidate for
the skill of the museum taxidermist.
Captured when fully grown, upon the
island of Marajo, that great delta of
the Amazon, it seemed never to have
forgotten its home among the
swamps, whence it had raided the
cattle of the rancheros-raided them
once too often.
Up in the blue dome the uribus
were gathering, black circling dots
that settled down and grew larger,
and materialiZed into black vultures.
Down they came, alighting, with a
ponderous wishing of wings, in a
nasty, double black row, on each side
of a ravine that gashed the surface
of the prairie not far from where
the towering wall of swampy forest
formed creeper-bound barrier, be-
yond which the cattle of the great
ranchero, Senior Joao Luiz da Sa, did
not or could not penetrate. The vul-
lures jostled and Kissed pettishly at
one another, and craned their blink
ing heads expectantly over the edge
of the gully.
There. upon the narrow strip of
sandy shore bordering the water, and
below the overhanging bank, with
broken neck, it's head twisted back
ward and sidewise and doubled use
1essly under its body, lay a range
bull, and beside the carcass, feeding
from great bloody hole in its side,
crouched jaguar.
It was not a common jaguar, with
tawny. black-rosetted hide, but
black one. the priced and feared onca
preta. Not black he was, but dark
brown, SO dark, indeed, that his
black markings seemed only indis-
tinct darker shadows in the satiny
sheen that rippled over his coat as
the muscles played beneath it. A
'oung male, supple and just arrived
IN his prime, he was a beautiful, pow
erful brute, with thick, heavy fore
quarters, a great broad head set on
short neck scarcely less heavy than
the shoulders from which it arose.
AS he tore and crunched his food, the
lighter hind legs and feet gripped at
the sand, and the tail jerked and
Slated about nervously.
1t was easy to mark the story of
the bulls death in the sand Some
long, plowed burrows told of the force
OF the jaguar's leap from the bank
above, which had knocked the bull
10 his knees and into the water, where
Re had been drinking. Truly the
,acas were becoming very bold. If
only they could be killed, as the
crocodiles were killed, with axes. the
cattle would not have to suffer from
them. But to compare a jaguar to
stupid crocodile!
Just yesterday a vaquero had seen
an onca singing away from a cows
carcass. one of the many that lay at
all too frequent intervals about the
ranges. And this in broad daylight!
Thus Alfredo. the principal va
Quero, was thinking. He was a big
fellow, Alfredo. bigger than the av-
erage Brazilian cowboy, and with a
pleasant, open face, far more inteili-
gent than the ordinary. He rode
easily, the RATA Of plated rawhide
swishing against the saddle-bow,
grotesquely big spurs buckled on his
bare heels, and his great toes thrust
through little brass stirrups SO small
that the openings in them were quite
filled. The little horse loped along,
fighting the bit, for AL
freda was going to distant part of
the range, and held him in that he
mig. not tire himself. The rider
swa: ed as II q wave of the motion OF
his mount flowed through his frame.
His eyes swept about. noting the lit