262 Wild Beasts 



treachery of its race. Besides this, it is very enterprising 

 when occasion warrants a display of audacity, as well as 

 extremely ferocious and blood-thirsty. More frequently, 

 perhaps, than any of the great cats, it kills for the mere 

 gratification of its cruel impulses. Dr. Merriman (" Mam- 

 mals of the Adirondacks ") states that on level ground " a 

 single spring of twenty feet is not uncommon for a cougar," 

 and Sheppard records the measurement of a distance twice 

 as great when the leap was made downward from a ledge 

 of rock upon a deer. 



Padre Jose de Acosta (" Historia natural y moral de las 

 Indias") says that neither the puma nor the jaguar "is so 

 fierce as he appears to be in pictures," though both will 

 kill men. There are, however, many places where the 

 puma has been so cowed by ill success in his attacks 

 upon human beings, that he avoids them as much as 

 possible. Cicza de Leon and Garcilasso de la Vega 

 express themselves to the same effect. Humboldt found 

 whole villages abandoned by their helpless inhabitants in 

 consequence of the ravages of the two great American 

 cats, but Emmanuel Liais ("Climats, Geologic, Faune, etc. 

 du Bresil ") asserts that both " rime et d' mitre fiiient r/ioinme 

 et les chiens; mime nn enfant a elieval leurfait peur." This 

 is a mere repetition of what has been asserted without 

 qualification, proper inquiry, or adequate experience with 

 the larger FelidcB in Asia and Africa. 



There is no need to argue the question whether or not 

 pumas can or will kill men ; that has been affirmatively 

 settled by facts. This creature's personal courage is a 

 different matter. It is only a brute ; yet if any one studies 



