CLASS I. MAMMALIA: ORDER 5. CARNIVORA. 



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THE BOA CONSTRICTOR CRUSHING THIS JAGUAR. 



merly called the Panther, and this was vulgarized into Painter ; sometimes, too, it was called 

 Catamount. Charlevoix described it under the name of Carcajou, which really belongs to the 

 glutton. Azara called it Gouazoura, and the French gave it the name of Cougar. This, with the 

 South American title of Puma, it still retains; it is also still called Panther in the United States. 

 The form of this creature is long and slender, the legs short and stout, the head being rather small 

 and carried high. The body is silvery fawn above, sometimes reddish, the tawny hairs of the 

 upper parts being whitish at the tips ; the belly and inside of the limbs are nearly white ; the head 

 hlack and gray, irregularly mixed. The length of the body is four to five feet, and sometimes 

 i even more. The female is colored like the male. Three to five young ones are produced at a 

 birth ; these are variously striped and spotted. 



The cougar is the only formidable animal of the cat kind that is known in the United States, 

 rormerly, it extended from Canada to Patagonia; but, in the more settled parts of our country, 

 it is altogether extirpated or extremely rare. Fifty years ago, it was occasionally met with 



