191 



CHAPTER X 



THE POIA, COUGAR, PANTHER. 



VTJLGO, PAINTER ; FELIS CONCOXOE THE LEOPARD-CAT ; OCELOT ; 



FELIS PAEDALIS. THE LYNX; BOB-TAELED CAT; BRINDLED CAT; 



LYNX RUFUS PRAIRIE WOLF; CANIS LATRANS. RED TEXAN- 

 WOLF; CANIS LUPUS. — THE AMERICAN SKUNK; MEPHITIS CHINGA. 



rpHOUG-H not very common now in the ^S'orthern 

 ^ States of America or Canada, the Puma, or pan- 

 ther, is yet to be found in considerable numbers in the 

 dense cane-brakes of Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana, 

 and Texas, whilst in the Everglades of Florida it is 

 perhaps as plentiful as ever. The Seminole Indians 

 having been forcibly removed from that State several 

 years ago, the wild animals of those jungly regions 

 have been rarely disturbed by white hunters, and thus 

 have been left to increase in peace. 



Naturalists have given the dimensions of the adult 

 puma as beiug about four feet, or four feet and a half 

 long in the body, and the tail at from two to two and 

 a half feet. These estimates have, probably, been given 

 from the measurements of animals killed in the Northern 

 or Middle States, as in the warmer and more srenial 

 climate of the extreme South they often exceed this 

 size. I once saw the skin of a panther which had been 



