THE PUMA 129 



to horse, sheep, and cattle breeders in the order given ; it 

 has a mania for horseflesh, and the herds of wild horses 

 are in danger of dying out owing to the constant loss of 

 their colts. The northern animal is said to eat anything 

 from deer to mice or fish, not even disdaining the 

 malodorous skunk or the prickly porcupine. 



The Gauchos make very short work of the Puma when 

 they encounter it. First entangling its feet in the bolas, i.e., 

 three cords knotted together, and having a stone or metal 

 ball at the end of each cord ; and then, casting the noose 

 of a lasso over it, they gallop away at full speed, making the 

 helpless body rebound from the earth until the animal is 

 dead. In the north the creature is relentlessly hunted 

 with dogs, treed, and shot. 



Notwithstanding the ferocious attitude of the Puma 

 towards quadrupeds generally, it seldom attacks man, and 

 sometimes will not even defend itself against him, resigning 

 itself unresistingly to death which it might very easily 

 escape. When a traveller has been sleeping in a hammock 

 in the forest, the Puma has been known to lie on the ground 

 underneath him, as though for the pleasure of human 

 company. Mr. Hudson, in The Naturalist in La Plata, 

 says : 



1 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.' There 

 are various stories in proof of this cat's generally harmless 

 character that would be incredible were they not backed 

 by good authority. In more than one instance a traveller 

 would have succumbed to the attack of a jaguar, but that 

 a Puma came to the rescue and put the bigger carnivore 

 to flight. 



It must, however, be admitted that such pretty instances 

 of amiability on the part of the South America Puma are 

 at least quite equalled in number by those in which the 

 animal displays all the ferocity of its race, crouching and 

 springing at mankind and biting and scratching in the 

 manner characteristic of the attacks of the cats. An angry 

 Puma is generally an opponent to be feared. Its leaping 



10 



