The Cat Tribe 51 



was scarce, declared that 4,000 jaguars were killed annually, and 2,000 skins exported from 

 Ihienos Ayres alone. It was clearly common on the Pampas in his day, and made as great 

 havoc among the cattle and horses as it does to-day. 



THE PUMA. 



The PUMA is a far more interesting creature. It is found from the mountains in Montana, 

 next the Canadian boundary, to the south of Patagonia. Yankee stories of its ferocity may 

 have some foundation ; but the writer believes there is no recorded instance of the northern 

 puma attacking man unprovoked, though in the few places where it now survives it kills 

 cattle-calves and colts. It is relentlessly hunted with dogs, treed, and shot. As to the puma 



Photo by Ottomar Anschutz] 



FEMALE PUMA. 

 This shows a puma alert and vigilant, with ears pricked forward. 



[Berlin. 



of the southern plains and central forests, the natives, whether Indians or Gauchos, agree with 

 the belief, steadily handed down from the days of the first Spanish conquest, that the puma 

 is the one wild cat which is naturally friendly to man. The old Spaniards called it amigo del 

 Cristiano (the Christian's friend) ; and Mr. Hudson, in " The Naturalist in La Plata," gives 

 much evidence of this most curious and interesting tendency : " It is notorious that where the 

 puma is the only large beast of prey it is perfectly safe for a small child to go out and sleep 

 on the plain. . . . The puma is always at heart a kitten, taking unmeasured delight in its 

 frolics ; and when, as often happens, one lives alone in the desert, it will amuse itself for hours 

 fighting mock battles or playing hide-and-seek with imaginary companions, or lying in wait 

 and putting all its wonderful strategy in practice to capture a passing butterfly." From 

 Azara downwards these stories have been told too often not to be largely true ; and in old natural 



