PUMA.—Leopardus Concolor. 
and also bears upon the neck, sides, and shoulders many dark spots, resembling those of 
the ordinary leopard. But, as the animal increases in size, the spots fade away, and, when it 
has attained its perfect development, are altogether lost in the uniform tawny hue of the fur. 
Until it has learned from painful experience a wholesome fear of man, the Puma is 
apt to bea dangerous neighbour. It is known to track human beings through long distances, 
awaiting an opportunity of springing unobservedly upon a heedless passer-by. A well- 
known traveller in American forest lands told me candidly, that he always ran away from 
“Grizzlys,” ¢.e. grizzly bears, but that “Painters were of no account.” He said that as 
long as a traveller could keep a Puma in sight, he need fear no danger from the animal, 
for that it would not leap upon him as long as its movements were watched, 
Even in those rare instances where the Puma, urged by fierce hunger, issued boldly from 
the dark leafage of the woods, and ventured to track the very pathway that was trodden 
by the travellers, there was yet no real danger. The Puma would creep rapidly towards 
the party, and would, in a short time, approach sufliciently near to make its fatal 
spring. But if one of the travellers faced sharply on the crawling animal, and looked it 
full in the face, the beast was discomfited at once, and slowly retreated, moving its head 
from side to side, as if trying to shake off the influence of that calm steady gaze to which 
it had never been accustomed, and which was a positive terror to the rapacious animal. 
A caged leopard has displayed a similar uneasiness at a fixed gaze of a spectator, and 
has finally been so quelled that in its restless walk it dared not turn its face towards 
its persecutor. 
Although it is not an object of personal dread to the civilized inhabitants of the forest 
lands, the Puma is a pestilent neighbour to the farmer, committmg sad havoc among his 
flocks and herds, and acting with such consummate craft, that it can seldom be arrested 
in the act of destruction, or precluded from achieving it. No less than fifty sheep have 
fallen victims to the Puma in a single night. It is not, however, the lot of every Puma to 
reside in the neighbourhood of such easy prey as pigs, sheep, and poultry, and the greater 
number of these animals are forced to depend for their subsistence on their own success in 
chasing or surprising the various animals on which they feed. As is the case with the 
jaguar, the Puma is specially fond of the capybara and the peccary, and makes a meal on 
many smaller deer than even the latter animal. 
