PUMA. 399 



showing that the uniform coloration of the adult is an acquired feature, and 

 that the ancestors of the species were doubtless spotted at all ages. 



In regard to the dimensions of the puma, it is stated by Mr. True that a male 

 preserved in the museum at Washington has a total length (measured along the 

 curves of the body) of 6 feet 7| inches, of which 2 feet 2J inches are occupied by 

 the tail. A large male killed in Arizona measured 7 feet in total length, of which 

 3 feet was occupied by the tail ; while a smaller male from the same locality had a 

 total length of only 6 feet, of which the tail took up 1 foot 11 inches. The largest 

 individual of which the measurements can be regarded as authenticated was one 

 killed in Texas in the year 1846, of which the total length was 8 feet 2 inches, the 

 length of the tail being 3 feet 1 inch. It is stated that a stuffed specimen 

 measures 9 feet 1 inch in total length, while Mr. W. A. Perry considers that the 

 length may in some instances be as much as 11 feet, which appears, however, 

 somewhat improbable. 



The geographical range of the puma in latitude is probably greater than that 

 of any other Mammal, extending from New England and British Columbia in the 

 north, to the extreme end of Patagonia in the south ; while Mr. W. H. Hudson is of 

 opinion that it has also occurred in Tierra del Fuego. According to Mr. True, in 

 Xorth America it does not even appear to have been met with in the states of New 

 Hampshire, Rhode Island, New Jersey, or Delaware, on the Atlantic coast, nor in 

 Michigan or Indiana in the north. Another recent writer states that it is still 

 abundant in Northern California, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, and 

 Alaska, and that it is most numerously represented in northern Washington, 

 where it attains its largest size, and where the abundance of deer, grouse, and 

 rabbits, and also of fish in the rivers, afford it an inexhaustible supply of food. In 

 Ohio the puma was exterminated previously to the year 1838, while it appears to 

 have become more recently extinct in the states of Illinois and Indiana. Like 

 many of the other wild animals of the United States, the puma is rapidly retreating 

 before the advance of civilisation and cultivation, and it is probable, as Mr. True 

 remarks, that in several of the more thickly-populated states not even stragglers 

 now remain. In South America it appears to be abundant both in the forest 

 districts of the great rivers, and likewise on the desert pampas ; and in the latter 

 area it largely exceeds the jaguar in numbers. 



As might have been predicted from its immense geographical range, the puma 

 is remarkable for its power of adapting itself to different climatic conditions and 

 external surroundings. For instance, in the Adirondack Mountains, near New 

 York, where it is now nearly exterminated, the puma has to withstand a severe 

 winter cold, during which it has to track its prey in the snow ; and this is also still 

 more markedly the case in the regions near the northern limits of its range. On 

 the other hand, the animal is equally at home in the hot and fetid swamps and 

 cane-brakes bordering the rivers of the southern United States, while in South 

 America it is to be found alike on the treeless grassy pampas of Argentina and in 

 the forests of the Amazon. Then, again, in the Rocky Mountains, it is stated, on the 

 authority of Mr. W. T. Homaday, that the puma will ascend to the high elevations 

 inhabited by the bighorn sheep, and its tracks have been observed on the summit 

 of Mount Persephone in California, at a height of three thousand feet above the 



