48 THE FRIENDL Y PUMA 



large beast of prey, it is notorious that it is perfectly 

 safe for even a small child to go out and sleep on the 

 plain/ Yet among other animals the puma is coura- 

 geous and destructive. It is a desperate sheep-killer, a 

 destroyer of foals, ' a peregrine falcon among mammals.' 

 Such an instinct of friendliness in a big cat, unique, 

 and the more surprising because even when domesticated 

 the race rarely exhibits more than an equable and 

 distant tolerance of man's existence, will no doubt 

 attract the attention of those who have the opportunity 

 of collecting information at first hand in the plains of 

 South America. No one but reliable ' field-naturalists,' 

 ranch-owners, and sportsmen can do so, and for these it 

 should form an interesting object of inquiry. 



