II 



THE FATHER OF GAME 



I HAVE frequently noticed in menageries a start 

 of surprise in the eyes of persons before a puma's 

 cage, when they learned that this splendid cat was 

 American. 



It somehow informs our prosaic northern forests 

 with a foreign, romantic, and adventurous spirit, 

 to find such a denizen in them, for pictures of the 

 lion, tiger, and leopard so fill our imaginations that 

 all large and fierce beasts seem necessarily tropical. 

 That, however, is by no means the fact. Even in 

 America the jaguar wanders north to the Indian 

 Territory or once did and south into Patagonia, 

 while the puma is to be found from Canada to 

 Cape Horn. Indeed, the wonder is that any natural 

 barriers, less than wide spaces of water, restrict 

 the range of these powerful animals. What pre- 

 vented the jaguar, able to live along the western 

 bank of the lower Mississippi, from spreading east- 

 ward, at least throughout the South Atlantic States ? 

 Yet we have no record that he ever did so, although 

 "moving accidents of flood" must again and again 

 have placed individuals and pairs on the eastern 

 D 33 



