42 WILD NEIGHBORS CHAP. 



young, because the father does not summon his 

 family to share with him a feast, as the African 

 lion is said to do. The mother leads her half- 

 grown kittens about with her, and doubtless gives 

 them useful instruction; but, according to Merriam, 

 she leaves them somewhat behind when actually in 

 pursuit of prey, fetching them to share the results. 



The amatory season occurs during the early win- 

 ter (varying according to latitude and climate), 

 when the female's softened mood and desire for 

 companionship apparently lead her to strange 

 doings, for it is hard otherwise to account for the 

 actions related of certain cougars that have in- 

 sisted upon an unpleasantly close acquaintance 

 with, rather than have made an attack upon, 

 human beings. Thus several cases have been 

 related as occurring in broad daylight in the State 

 of Washington, where unarmed men or women 

 have been approached by a puma, which came 

 close, and even leaped upon them, knocking them 

 down and scaring them nearly to death, then re- 

 treated a little way, danced and rolled about, but 

 at first, at least, offered no harm, beyond playfully 

 seizing and tearing their clothes. Later, however, 

 a realization of human helplessness, together with 

 impatience at the lack of sympathy with feline 

 humor, sometimes provoked a more savage attack. 



Nowhere is the puma more numerous and famil- 

 iar, in spite of the war of extermination waged 

 against it by the ranchmen, than on the pampas 



