THE FRIENDL Y PUMA 47 



knife, and the animal, after dodging the first blow, had 

 struck him in the face with his paw. In a previous 

 hunt (after game and ostriches) one of their company 

 had fallen from his horse and broken his leg. He lay 

 on the pampa all night, and when found next morning 

 told the following story. An hour after it became 

 dark a puma came and sat by him. After frequently 

 going and returning, it left him for a long time. About 

 midnight he heard the roar of a jaguar, and gave him- 

 self up for lost. But the jaguar was watching something 

 else. It moved out of sight, and he then heard snarls 

 and growls, and the sharp cry of a puma, and knew 

 that the two beasts were fighting. The jaguar returned 

 several times, and the puma renewed the contest every 

 time until morning, when both disappeared. Mr. 

 Hudson had ' already met with many anecdotes of a 

 similar kind in various parts of the country, some vastly 

 more interesting than this. But he gave this account 

 because it was at first hand/ Many instances are given 

 by Mr. Hudson of the puma's confidence in man. He 

 also gives three cases of its refusal to defend itself, and 

 another in which four pumas played round a sleeping 

 man for several hours at night without disturbing him. 

 The Southern puma is the animal credited with these 

 friendly instincts. In North America it has been much 

 persecuted by man, and bears a different character. But 

 in Argentina, in ' places where the puma is the only 



