48 The Natiiralist in La Plata. 



appeared and sat near him, but did not seem to 

 notice him. After a while it became restless, fre- 

 quently going away and returning, and finally it 

 kept away so long, that he thought it had left him 

 for good. About midnight he heard the deep roar 

 of a jaguar, and gave himself up for lost. By raising 

 himself on his elbow he was able to see the outline 

 of the beast crouching near him, but its face was 

 turned from him, and it appeared to be intently 

 watching some object on which it was about to 

 spring. Presently it crept out of sight, then he 

 heard snarlings and growlings and the sharp yell of 

 a puma, and he knew that the two beasts were 

 fighting. Before morning he saw the jaguar several 

 times, but the puma renewed the contest with it 

 again and again until morning appeared, after which 

 he saw and heard no more of them. 



Extraordinary as this story sounds, it did not 

 seem so to me when I heard it, for I had already 

 met with many anecdotes of a similar nature in 

 various parts of the country, some of them vastly 

 more interesting than the one I have just narrated ; 

 only I did not get them at first hand, and am con- 

 sequently not able to vouch for their accuracy ; but 

 in this case it seemed to me that there was really 

 no room for doubt. All that I had previously heard 

 had compelled me to believe that the puma really 

 does possess a unique instinct of friendliness for 

 man, the origin of which, like that of many other well- 

 known instincts of animals, must remain a mystery. 

 The fact that the puma never makes an unprovoked 

 attack on a human being, or eats human flesh, and 

 that it refuses, except in some very rare cases, even 



