594 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1889. 



specimen mentioned above. The total length in that case was 8 feet 2 

 inches. There are, however, records of measurements of flat skins of 

 greater size.* I have myself measured a skin from Colorado in the 

 National Museum, (No. 19906), of which the total length in a straight 

 line is 8 feet 4 inches. Mr. Livingston Stone states that the skin 

 of a Puma killed on the McOloud River, California, " measured 8i 

 feet when stretched."t The average total length of nine flat skins of 

 adults iri the possession of Mr. F. S. Webster, of Washington, is 7 feet 

 4 inches. 



The area over which the Puma ranges extends from New England and 

 British Columbia to the Straits of Magellan. On the Atlantic coast of 

 North America the species has apparently not been found in the States 

 of New Hampshire, Rhode Island, New Jersey, or Delaware. On our 

 northern boundary I find no mention of its having been found in Michi- 

 gan or Indiana. In Ohio it was extirpated prior to 1838, and probably 

 more recently in Illinois and Indiana. I find no record of its occur- 

 rence in Nevada, but as it has been found in the surrounding States it 

 seems improbable that it should be entirely absent here. 



With these exceptions there are recorded instances, more or less nu- 

 merous, of the occurrence of the Puma in every State and Territory of 



* Since this was written. Prof. C. L. Bristol, of Vermillion, South Dakota, has sent 

 me a letter addressed to him by Mr. James G. Needliam, taxidermist of Galesburgh, 

 Illinois, in winch the writer states that he knows of several mounted specimens in 

 which the head and body taken together exceed 60 inches in length, and that he has 

 recently mounted one from near Lake Valley, New Mexico, a fine dark skin, which 

 measured 70 inches from the nose to the root of the tail. The tail was 39 inches long, 

 and the total length 109 inches. 



t Forest and stream, xix, 1882, p. 208. 



Anonymous and pseudonymous writers in the various natural history and sporting 

 journals give still larger dimensions. Thus we read of a Puma killed at Lauder, in 

 Wyoming Territory, which measured " 10 feet from tip to tip " (American Field, XXIV. 

 1885, p. 486) and even of one from Colorado that was 11 feet 3 inches long (" S. C. C." 

 Forest and Stream, xix, 1882, p. 127). 



While it is well known that giants, which greatly exceed ordinary individuals in 

 size, exist among many kinds of animals, it is necessary that statements regarding 

 them in order to receive credence should be accompanied by unquestionable proofs. 

 The best vouchers are the skins and skulls of the specimens preserved in museums. 

 The cases cited above are not properly vouched for. It may be said, furthermore, 

 that among the twenty skulls of Pumas iu the National Museum there is none which 

 by the most liberal calculation could be supposed to belong to an individual exceed- 

 ing 8| feet in total length. The greatest length of the largest skull, (No. 1158, from 

 Prairie Mer Rouge, Louisiana), is 8| inches, and its basilar length, that is, from the 

 back of the incisor teeth to the front edge of the foramen magnum, 6* iuches. 



Iu recording measurements of fresh specimens, it should always be stated whether 

 the line is allowed to follow the curves of the back or whether the measurements are 

 made in straight lines. It should also be remembered, as regards measurements of 

 total length, that an individual with a well-developed body, but a short tail, may ap- 

 pear to be a smaller and feebler animal thau one with a long tail, when the contrary 

 may in reality be the truth. 



