104. Lloyd's natural history. 



extinct in many parts of the country, but in the mo?ite along 

 the Uruguay River it is still found. An estanciero living at 

 Cordova in Argentina tells me he had seen both Pumas and 

 Jaguars coming down the big river on tree-trunks. In this 

 way stray examples might very well turn up in a district long 

 after the native breed was extinct. I heard that it was still 

 found, although very rarely, in the motite of the Rio Negro on 

 that part of the coast of the river which I visited in the Depart- 

 ment of that name ; but all I could hear of it in South Soriano 

 was a report that one had been seen on the Arroyo de Monzon 

 some years ago." 



On the pampas of Argentina where it was formerly very 

 numerous, it is now extremely scarce, although more common 

 in the wooded chaco-country of the interior. On the Rio 

 Negro, in Upper Patagonia, Mr. Hudson states that a few years 

 ago they infested the settlements. " At all seasons a few of 

 these sly but withal audacious robbers haunt the river-side ; 

 but in winter a great many lean and hungry individuals come 

 down from the uplands to slay the Sheep and Horses, and it is 

 extremely difficult to track them to their hiding-places in the 

 thorny thickets overhanging the valley. I was told that not lesi 

 than a hundred Pumas were killed annually by the shepherds 

 and herdsmen." Further south they appear even at the pre- 

 sent day to be equally numerous. 



Habits.— As the Jaguar in South America has usurped the 

 name of the Tiger, so the Puma is commonly called by Euro- 

 peans in the same country the Lion {Leon of the Spanish), 

 although the natives always call it by its proper name of Puma, 

 in which, by the way, the u should be pronounced as oo. 

 Although frequently termed in the States the American Lion, 

 the animal is there more commonly known as the Panther, 

 generally corrupted into "painter"; although the native Indian 

 name " Cougar " is likewise in common use. When the natural 



