326 Information respecting Botanical Travellers, 



measurement of a subject which was killed at the savannahs of the 

 Rio Branco, and which is now in my possession. It stood behind 

 2 feet, and before 1 foot 10 inches ; and its whole length from the 

 nose to the tip of the tail was 6 feet 2 inches. 



ft. in. 

 Length from back of skull bone to insertion of tail 3 1 



Length of tail 2 4 



Length from point of shoulder to malleolus of fore foot . . 15 



Girth o^fore leg below point of shoulder 8^^ 



Girth of fore leg immediately below the knee 5^ 



Length of the knee joint to malleolus 10 



Length of the sole of the hind foot 4 



Breadth of ditto . 4 



Girth of the middle of the belly 2 2 



Girth of the body near the shoulder 1 10 



Length from tip of snout to posterior extremity of the skull 9 



Space between the base of the ears 4 



Length of the ears 3^ 



Space from eye to nostril 2^ 



Hind leg from hip joint to sole of foot 1 9 



Hind leg from knee joint to ditto 5 



Length of fore claws j^.^^j^^j^^ ^ ^j 



Length of hmd claws J " 



It is very destructive to the cattle farms, and it is so powerful an 

 animal, that I have been told by an eye witness, that it killed a 

 mule and dragged it across a trench to the opposite side, although 

 the trench was not quite full of water, and the Puma had to drag it 

 a few feet up hill, after it landed with its prey on the other side. My 

 informant, who had watched its proceedings, had meanwhile sent 

 for his gun, and shot him while attempting to pull the mule into the 

 wood. They seem to be particularly partial to dogs, and a great 

 number of those which are kept by the settlers for the purpose of 

 hunting, are killed and eaten by them. They follow in the woods 

 the herds of Peccaries, and watch their motion in order to seize upon 

 the stragglers, being well aware that if they attacked the flock, they 

 would be overpowered and torn to pieces. They hunt as well by 

 day as in the night, and feed also on deer and the smaller domestic 

 animals. They give birth to two young ones, seldom three, which 

 have spots of a darker hue, more or less visible, according as the 

 lights fall upon them, and which I have been told they lose after 

 the first year. 



Cuvier doubts that the cats just described form two different spe- 



