THE PUMA, OE AMERICAN LION. 601 



tlie Puma is found in Peru iu the highest forests and even to the snow 

 line (though seldom here).* A writer in the Encyclopaedia Britannica I 

 states that "in Central America it is still common in the dense forests 

 which clothe mountain ranges as high as 8,000 or 9,000 feet above the 

 sea-level." 



In these different regions the Puma always selects for his abode such 

 spots as afford some shelter, but we find him iu the thickets and copses, 

 rather than in the great forests.! " Those panthers that we have ob- 

 served," writes one of the naturalists of the Mexican Boundary Survey, 

 "were always found iu the most solitary places, generally where there 

 were thick bushes, and in the vicinity of rocky spots, affording caverns 

 for secure concealment, and in which to bring forth their young." || 



The Puma seeks his prey chietiy at dawn and twilight and under cover 

 of night, but he also sometimes hunts by day. The different species of 

 American deer are his principal quarry, but he preys also upon smaller 

 mammals. He will even feed upon the different species of American 

 porcupines, despite their quills, which lacerate his mouth and face.§ 

 Audubon and Bachman state that raccoons and skunks, as well as birds, 

 form a part of his food, and that he will eat carrion when hard pressed 

 by hunger/] To this list Brehin adds the South American Coati,** 

 Agouti ft and Paca,|| and the Ehea, or American ostrich. |||| Drs. Coues 

 and Yarrow state that in New Mexico and Arizona the Puma kills hun- 

 dreds of wild turkeys and has indeed broken up many of the former 

 breeding-places.§§ Pennant asserts that the wolf serves the Puma for 

 prey. This is improbable. Nevertheless, he reports that there was in 

 the Museum of the Boyal Society of London the skin of a Puma which 

 was shot shortly after it had killed a wolf/]fl 



Of the larger domestic animals, such as the horse and cow, the Puma 



* Fauna Peruana, 1844-'4G, ]>. 132. 



t Ninth ed., xx, 1886, p. 105. 



J Burmeister, Description Physique de la Rdpublique Argentine, in, 1879, p. 130. 



HKennerly, U. S. aud Mex. Bound. Survey, Pt. II, Mammals, 1859, p. 6. 



$ De Kay, Zoology of New York, Pt. I, Mammalia, 184*2, p. 49; Merriam, Trans. 

 Linneau Soc, New York, i, 1882, p. 30. 



If Audubon and Bachman, Quadnroeds of North America, II, 1851, p. 307. 



** Nasua narica. 



It Dasyprocta aguti. 



!! Coelogenys paea. 



Illl Brehm, Thierleben, Saugethiere, I, 1876, p. 382. 



§§ Report, Wheeler's Survey, v, Zoology, 1S75, p. 40. 



If If Pennant, History of Quadrupeds, 3d ed., i, 1793, p. 290. Jardine also mentions 

 this skin. See Naturalists' Library, XVI, p. 127. Pennant states also, m the place 

 cited, that the Puma leaps upon the moose, as well as on other wild animals, which 

 is improbable. 



