36 QUADRUPEDS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



Skull. 



Length measured along the palatine bones to the foramen, 



" over the frontal bones to the crucial ridge, . 



" incisors to the meatus externus, . 

 Width at the zygomatic ai-ches, .... 



Greatest width of the lower jaw. 

 Length of the canine tooth of the upper jaw above the gum, 



Observations. The Puma is not found at present in this State. 

 It has, however, been seen in the western portion long since its 

 settlement. It is a cowardly animal, rarely if ever attacks man, 

 and most of the tales relating to its depredations are fictitious ; in 

 that portion of St. Lawrence County, New York, where they 

 most abound, no instance is known of their having destroyed a 

 single individual, man or child.* It preys of course upon all the 

 animals weaker than itself ; it does not refuse even the hedge-hog, 

 which it contrives to eat without swallowing its quills, by com- 

 mencing its meal at the nose, and drawing the body through the 

 skin as it proceeds. The skull from which the above measure- 

 ments were taken, belonged to an individual not fully mature. 

 The most remarkable feature of the skull is the convexity of the 

 face ; the nasal and frontal bones being very distinctly arched, 

 and, besides, the bones of the face, together with the frontal, 

 form the largest portion of the skull, so that the part containing the 

 brain is thrown back far in the rear. The thickest portion of brain 

 is evidently immediately over the meatus auditorius externus. 

 The sockets for the eyes are much larger than in the Bear, and 

 their direction is more oblique to the axis of the cranium. The 

 width of the skull is great in proportion to the length. In the ab- 

 sence of the teeth we may distinguish the skull by attentively mark- 

 ing the above characters. The tails of females which have fallen 

 under my observation, are shorter than of the males, yet there 

 may not be a constancy of character in this particular, which can 

 be depended upon. The female brings forth two young ones at 

 a litter, which are beautifully spotted with rather irregular, oblong 

 spots of brown. These mostly disappear at the first shedding of 



* A single hunter, in St. Lawrence County, not many years since, met five 

 Panthers together, of which, with his dog and gun, he killed three at the time, 

 and the next day the other two. 



