When the jaguar attacks the alligator, he is said to spring on its back, and then tear, with all his might, at the root of its tail. This, possibly, is with the idea of paralysing that member, thus rendering it incapable of those mighty sweeps from side to side which are more, almost, to be feared than even the great armed jaws. The fear of both these weapons may deter the jaguar from clawing the throat of the saurian, for were it to be jerked off in the latter’s struggles, it would be more exposed to either than if it fell farther back. But why not disembowel the creature, since that could be done—or attempted—from almost equally far down the back? However, as far as I am aware, we have no real evidence as to the _modus operandi_ employed by the jaguar on these occasions, nor do I know anyone who has come nearer to witnessing such a scene than Mr. Bates, who, however, was just too late. Besides alligators, the jaguar, like the common cat, is fond of a meal of fish, but unlike “the poor cat i’ the adage,” he is not afraid of wetting his paws to get it. Such, at least, is the story told by both natives and white men in South America, according to which he will climb out on the branch of a tree but just overhanging the waters of some forest river, and lie crouched there, with his paw suspended in air, till a fish swims by near the surface, when he dexterously jerks it up and catches it in his mouth. In Darwin’s _Journal of Researches_ a picture is given of a jaguar thus employed, and when one sees it, one, of course, thinks that there will be a good description of it, with, perhaps, an anecdote or two. But the same disappointment is in store for us as in the case of the jaguar and alligator in Mr. Bates’ book, for the grand picture has hardly two lines of letterpress; which has vexed me so that I should call it unfair if I were quite sure Darwin had had nothing to do with it. CHAPTER XIX JAGUARS AND PECCARIES—A FOREST DRAMA—STRENGTH IN NUMBERS—RETALIATION.