THE PUMA, OR AMERICAN LION. 607 



Indiaus of Paraguay was " Giiazuard. Others called it u Yagiia-pita," 

 meaning red Yagiia, or Yagiiati meaning white Yagiia.* 



The word " Paiuter" is a corruption of Panther. It is unfortunate 

 that this latter name has gained general acceptance in the United States, 

 since the true Panther is a spotted, Old World cat, very different in ap- 

 pearance from the Puma. 



The name Mountain Lion is not altogether inappropriate, as the Puma 

 somewhat resembles the female Lion in color and general form.t From 

 the earliest days the Puma has been called the Lion (Leon) by Spanish 

 Americans, and the name is still used. 



The names Catamount, or Catamountain, and Wild Cat have no special 

 applicability to the Puma. They have been used by English writers to 

 designate the European Wild Cat (Felts catus) and Lynxes, and by 

 Americans have been applied to the Lynxes of this country. 



Besides those names which are in common use, there are some which 

 have been invented from time to time by various authors, and are 

 known to zoologists as " book-names." Button's name Couguar really 

 belongs to this class, as do also the names Brazilian Cat (die brasilian- 



# Azara, Quadriipedos del ParagUay, I, 1802. p. 120. It another place, (1. c, p. 91) 

 Azara states that the word Yagiia original!}' signified a dog. (A writer in the Ency- 

 clopaedia Britaunica says "a big dog.") At the instigation of my friend Prof. O. T. 

 Mason, Dr. A. Gatschet has kindly given me some very interesting information regard- 

 ing the word Yagiid. "It appears," he writes, "that agoard was used in the Guarani 

 language for all quadrupeds, or at least the wild ones, the dog heiug yagiid or agua- 

 rati ; the wolf, agiiaraguaril (the large quadruped) ; the fox, aguard; the hear, agitata 

 rami. In the cognate Tupi, jagua means tail, and as the initial / becomes deciduous, 

 I infer that aguard means nothing else than ' having a tail.' Thus in Tonka we (Texas) 

 a large number of birds and the smaller quadrupeds are also called after their tail 

 (tan) and its length or other properties." 



tSome early writers, believing that the Puma was in truth the same as the Lion, 

 were puzzled by the fact that all the skins appeared to be those of females, as they 

 were without manes. Thus Adriaen van der Donck writes: "Although the New- 

 Netherlands lay in a fiue climate, aud although the country in winter seems rather 

 cold, nevertheless lions are found there, but not by the Christians, who have trav- 

 ersed the laud wide and broad and have not seen one. It is only known to us by the 

 skins of the females, which are sometimes brought in by the Indians for sale ; who on 

 inquiry say, that the lious are found far to the southwest, distant fifteen or twenty 

 days' journey, in very high mountains, and that the males are too active aud fierce 

 to be taken." (Van der Donck, A Description of the New-Netherlands, 2d ed., 1656. 

 Coll. N. Y. Hist. Soc, i, 1841, p. 167. See also De la Coudamine in Pinkerton's Col- 

 lection of Travels, etc., XIV, 1813, p. 246.) 



Garcilasso de la Vega remarks of the land of theYncas: "Lions are met with, 

 though they are not so large nor so fierce as those of Africa. The Indians call them 

 Puma." (Royal Commentaries, n, book 8. Hakluyt Soc, vol. XLV, 18, p. 238.) 



.See also Clavigero, Hist, of Mexico, Cullen's trans. I, 1807, p. 37. 



