The Puma 271 



it considers to be a suitable opportunity for making an 

 attack. 



The best and most intimate acquaintance with the char- 

 acter of a wild beast comes from those associations in- 

 volved in domestication. When you have brought up an 

 animal and been with it constantly day by day, the chances 

 of finding out what it is like are better than they could be 

 under any other conditions whatever. Prince Maximilian 

 of Nieuwied, states that the puma is "peculiarly suscepti- 

 ble of domestication." It does not appear, however, that 

 he made any experiments in this direction, and it may be 

 suspected that if he had, certain reasons for modifying his 

 views upon the animal's character would have suggested 

 themselves during their course. A cougar is a cat, and in 

 virtue of that fact is, as has been said, of all animals the 

 least susceptible of radical change. Sanderson and Barras 

 make a wide distinction between feline species, considered 

 as amenable or refractory to such influences ; and nothing 

 is offered in the way of disparagement to their opinions, 

 provided it be admitted that a young tiger may be a much 

 more amiable and interesting infant than a panther cub, 

 and, according to Gerard, a lion whelp attaches all hearts 

 by its good qualities. But there soon comes a time at 

 which traits inherent in them all are developed, and when 

 they become strikingly alike in all their essential charac- 

 teristics. 



The writer bears in affectionate remembrance a pet 

 " panther " who, from earliest life until his complete and 

 splendid maturity, lived with him upon terms of the 

 closest companionship. Every one who seriously studies 



