106 LLOYD’S NATURAL HISTORY. 
on the summit of Mount Pggsephone, in California, at an ele- 
vation of 3,000 feet. Similarly, Darwin states that he saw the 
footprints of the Puma on the Cordillera of Central Chili at 
an elevation of at least 10,000 feet. According to Tschudi, 
the Puma is found in Peru in the highest forests, and even to 
the snow-line, although seldom at the latter level.” And it has 
been stated that the animal is still common in the forests of 
Central America at a height of from 8,000 to 9,000 feet above 
_ the sea-level. 
Wherever it be situated, however, the Puma always selects 
for its lair the most sheltered and solitary situations; in wooded 
districts generally frequenting thick bushes and copses, rather 
than tall forests. Such spots as have rocks, with crevices and 
caverns well-suited for the maternal requirements, are, however, 
those most favoured. Although occasionally hunting its prey 
by day, the Puma is mainly nocturnal in its habits, especially 
in thickly populated districts, where constant persecution has 
taught it the prudence of caution ; and its favourite times for 
being on the prowl are evening and early dawn. When sup- 
plies are abundant, it is stated to drink only the blood of its 
victims, although this statement stands, perhaps, in need of 
confirmation, and it will frequently kill far more than it can 
possibly consume, a case being recorded where no less than 
half-a-hundred sheep were destroyed in the course of one night 
by a single Puma. With such a bloodthirsty and destructive 
disposition, it is little wonder that the animal is detested by all 
settlers in the districts it frequents, and persecuted by them 
with unrelenting pertinacity. The cubs, which in the wild 
state vary from two to five in number, although in captivity 
there are generally two, but occasionally one, are produced in 
soine secure and sequestered situation, varying locally accord- 
ing to the nature of the country. In the Adirondack Moun- 
tains of New York, for instance, the breeding-lair is generally 
