THE PUMA, OR AMERICAN LION. 603 



wounded hun is doubtless true, as any wounded animal is likely to turn 

 upon its persecutor, but this is quite different from an unprovoked 

 assault.* 



It is the habit of the Puma to spring upon his prey from an emi- 

 nence, such as a ledge of rock or a slight rise of ground. If he fails 

 to strike his victim, he seldom pursues it for any considerable distance. 

 In northern regions, however, he sometimes pursues the deer when 

 they are almost helpless in the deep suow.t It was reported to Darwin 

 that the Puma killed its prey by jumping upon the shoulder and turn- 

 ing the head back with its paw until the vertebras of the neck are 

 broken or dislocated. . Azara ascribes the same habit to the Jaguar.f 



The female brings forth her young in some secluded spot. In the 

 Adirondacks, according to Dr. Merriam, " the lair is usually in a shal- 

 low cavern on the face of some inaccessible cliff or ledge of rocks."|| 

 " In the southern States," says Audubon, " where there are no caves 

 or roeks, the lair of the Cougar is generally in a very dense thicket or 

 in a cane-brake. It is a rude sort of bed of sticks, weeds, leaves, and 

 grasses or mosses, and where the canes arch over it, as they are ever- 

 green, their long pointed leaves turn the rain at all seasons of the 

 year." § 



From two to five young are born at a time. Bartlett states that in 

 captivity the number is usually two, but sometimes one. Their young 

 are reared without difficulty .fl They are brought forth at the close of 

 winter or early in spring in the Northern parts of the United States, || 

 and at the beginning of summer in South America, that is at the end of 

 December.** The period of gestation is from thirteen to fourteen 



* Catesby, in a generally judicious account of the Puma, remarks : " The smallest 

 cur, in company with his master, will make him take to a tree, which they will climb 

 to the top of with the greatest agility. The hunter takes this opportunity to shoot 

 him, though with no small danger to himself, if not killed outright, for descending 

 furiously from the tree he attacks the first in his way, either man or dog, which 

 seldom escape alive." (Natural History of Carolina, II, 1743, p. xxv.) 



t Merriam, 1. c, p. 3*2. 



i Darwin, Voyage of the Beagle, p. 269; Azara, Quadriipedos de la Paraguay, I, 

 1802, p. 93. These statements are in a measure corroborated by reliable writers on 

 Asiatic mammals, who affirm that the tiger frequently kills its prey in the same 

 manner. Sterudale remarks, however, that as the attack is usually made in the 

 evening or at night, and very suddenly, it is not easy to determine the exact manner 

 in which the prey is killed. He mentions having seen five cattle, killed by tigers, 

 which had the neck dislocated. (Sterudale, Mammals of India, 1884, p. 174.) Dar- 

 win saw skeletons of guanacos with the neck dislocated, which were believed to 

 have been killed by Pumas. 



|| Merriam, 1. c, p. 35. 



§ Audubon and Bachman, 1. c, p. 311. 



1T Proc. Zool. Soc, London, 1861, p. 141. 



** Burmeister, 1. c, p. 118. 



