PUMA. 405 



annually, and several of their old breeding-places have become completely 

 deserted. When extremely hard pressed by hunger, the puma is said not even to 

 disdain a meal of carrion. 



Like most of the larger felines, the puma seeks its prey mainly by night and 

 during the morning and evening twilights, but it hunts occasionally by day. 

 Deer are stalked after the usual stealthy manner of the cat tribe, and when 

 approached within striking distance are rushed upon in a series of successive leaps, 

 unless, indeed, the puma can spring upon them from an elevation, when a single 

 leap will suffice. If not caught within a few leaps, the deer commonly escapes, as 

 its foe then gives up the chase. The leaping powers of the puma are prodigious, 

 and it is said that when pursued by dogs it has been known to spring upwards and 

 reach a bough at a height of twenty feet from the ground, while horizontal leaps 

 of the same distance are by no meano uncommon, and an instance is on record 

 where the length of a leap on snow was close upon forty feet. Authorities are now 

 generally agreed that the puma kills the larger animals by springing upon their 

 shoulders and dislocating the neck. In the northern portions of its range during 

 the winter the puma will on occasions pursue deer for long distances when they 

 are incapable of rapid flight owing to the depth of snow on the ground. 



The number of young produced at a birth varies from one to four or five ; 

 but apparently two is the ordinary number, more especially when in captivity. 

 In the Adirondacks, according to Dr. Merriam, the young are born towards the 

 close of winter or the beginning of spring, the lair being usually situated in a 

 shallow cave on the face of a steep cliff or ledge of rock. And it would appear 

 that in the same district the female does not give birth to offspring more frequently 

 than every other year. In the southern portions of the United States, where caves 

 and rocks are wanting, Audubon states that the lair is made in a dense thicket or 

 cane-brake, and constructed of twigs, leaves, and moss, with an overarching roof of 

 evergreen canes, which forms an efficient protection against rain at all seasons of 

 the year. The young when first born are from 10 to 12 inches in length ; they 

 open their eyes at the ninth or tenth day. The age which the puma attains is 

 not yet ascertained, but one kept at Frankfort for sixteen years died from an 

 accident while in full health and vigour. 



Although the works of the older writers abound with references to the piercing 

 cries and startling screams of the puma, it would seem that in general the animal is 

 silent. Darwin states that in South America the only occasion on which it utters 

 any sound is during the breeding-season, and even then but rarely, while, when 

 wounded, it always remains silent. From accounts given him by the hunters of 

 the Adirondacks, Dr. Merriam came to the conclusion that the screams of the puma 

 were a total myth, the cries which have been attributed to it being uttered by other 

 animals. Against this, it may be observed that Messrs Kennerby and Schott, when 

 surveying in Mexico in 1858, state that on more than one occasion they heard loud 

 cries which they attributed (on what evidence does not appear) to the puma. 

 Moreover, Dr. J. A. Allen in Colorado, and Mr. D. G. Eliot in Florida, speak of 

 having heard the puma's cry, although the latter writer, at any rate, did not see 

 the animal. More important is the observation recorded by Mr. Schott to the effect 

 that a puma killed on the Bio Bravo, between Fort Duncan and Laredo, " during 



