Animals that Set Traps 



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ment, if the guachos of the Argentina pampas 

 are to be believed and they ought to know. 

 When one of these great cats seeking for food 

 spies a herd of guanacos on the plain he steals 

 as near as he can (always, of course, up the 

 wind) and crouches flat upon the ground. 

 Then he lifts his tail and begins to wave the 

 end of it above the grass. The sharp-eyed 

 guanacos soon catch sight of it and draw nearer 

 and nearer to investigate this strange freak. 

 They gather closer and circle around the cat, 

 coming closer and closer with fatuous craving 

 to understand it, until the puma strikes one 

 down. This fact may be true, without requir- 

 ing us to believe that the puma lifts and waves 

 its tail with a deliberate purpose to attract his 

 prey; it may be done out of habit, or nervous 

 eagerness, quite unconsciously in respect to 

 the effect. 



It has been surmised that the nervously 

 wavering tail of the coiled serpent intent upon 

 prey was really the instrument of what is called 

 its fascination for the bird or squirrel upon 

 which its eye is fixed. If so, this wavering 

 $ 145 *> 



