178 



THE CAT TRIBE. 



to a tree, whence he observes for an instant 

 his barking foes. If the hunter is not quickly 

 at hand with his missiles, the animal escapes 

 with rapid leaps from branch to branch. Dogs 

 fall upon him with fury, while they fear the 

 jaguar, and only bark at him. It need hardly 



be mentioned that for his extirpation one has 

 recourse to snares, traps, poisoned arrows, 

 &c., and that he is fearlessly attacked with 

 a naked weapon. The Indians eat his firm 

 white flesh, which is said to resemble veal. 

 Shy and timid the puma is easily tamed, and 



Fig. 82. The Oi 



behaves in captivity like a gently-disposed cat, 

 though it often becomes an unpleasant com- 

 panion through the violence of its caresses. 

 But in the settlements it is difficult to train 

 it to spare tame poultry. Its innate thirst 

 for blood often causes it to deviate from the 

 paths of a hardly acquired virtue. 



The following narrative by Lady Florence Dixie 

 shows the terror which the puma inspires in mules 

 and horses: 



"As we were approaching the spot where we 

 intended camping, one of the mules, which was 

 heading the troop, suddenly turned and dashed 

 away, and in another instant the whole troop broke 

 up and dispersed, galloping in all directions. What 

 was the cause of this stampede? We pressed 

 quickly forward, but nothing stirred in the long 

 grass, though we scoured everywhere. We were 

 baffled for a minute. ' It's a puma somewhere,' 



said Gregorio. The words were hardly out ol his 

 mouth when a loud view-holloa rent the air. 

 'There he goes, there he goes!' shouted two or 

 three of our party in chorus, and sure enough, there 

 he was going a mighty yellow puma slouching 

 swiftly away at some distance to our left, with my 

 brother following close on his track. For us all 

 to gallop after and come within ten yards of the 

 puma was the work of a moment, but to get nearer 

 than ten yards or so was quite another matter, 

 as our horses were quivering with fright, and with 

 difficulty were kept from turning tail and bolting 

 from the dread presence of their mortal enemy. 

 Meanwhile the puma, finding himself surrounded, 

 lay sullenly down, eyeing us with dogged hate, 

 and scarcely seeming to heed the presence of the 

 dogs, who were growling furiously at him at a 

 respectful distance from his claws. Finding it 

 useless to try to approach on horseback, my brother 

 dismounted, and a rifle being at hand, took steady 

 aim at the crouching animal and fired. Simul- 



