174 PATAGONIAN EXPEDITIONS: ZOOLOGY. 



neck. Cases are reported of pumas attacking horses, but no instance of 

 this came under my notice. They generally select a stormy and tempes- 

 tuous night during which to make their depredations. It is rather curious, 

 as occasionally happens, to see a herd of cows with their calves take up 

 the trail of a puma with a great deal of lowing and fuss, but they do not 

 follow it for any distance. ... 



" Pumas are more often destroyed in winter, when the snow lies on the 

 ground, and their tracks can be followed to their hiding places ; otherwise 

 they are so marvellously expert in concealing themselves that it is often 

 impossible to find their lair." [L. c, pp. 251-253.) 



So far as known, the mainland of Patagonia forms the southern limit 

 of distribution of both forms, they being unknown on Tierra del Fuego 

 and neighboring islands. How far they range to the northward, or what 

 their geographical relations are with the more northern forms of the Puma 

 group, are matters at present quite unknown. 



Puma pearsoni (Thomas). 



(Plates XXV, Animal, gray phase ; XXVI, Animal, red phase ; XXVII-XXIX, Skull.)' 



Felis concolor [iiec Linn.) in part, of most authors prior to 1901. — Cun- 

 ningham, Nat. Hist. Strait Magellan, 1871, 106, pi. facing p. 118, 

 skull, from near Sandy Point, Patagonia. 



Felis concolor pearso)ii T\iom2L?,, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. (7), VHI, Sept., 



1 90 1, 188. Santa Cruz, Patagonia, about 70 miles inland. — Prich- 

 ard, P. Z. S., 1902, 274 (field notes) ; Through Heart of Patagonia, 



1902, 155, 253 (account of the type specimen and colored plate of 

 animal), 334, 335 (reprint of the original description by Oldfield 

 Thomas). 



Felis puma pearsojii Merriam, Proc. Washington Acad. Sci., HI, 1891, 

 600 (Dec. II, 1901). Based on Thomas, as above. 



Red phase. — Am. Mus., No. 17434, 9, Smith's Ranch, near mouth of 

 Rio Coy, about sixty miles south of Santa Cruz, Patagonia; Barnum 

 Brown. Total length, 2332 mm.; head and body, 1557; tail, without 

 hairs, 775 ; hairs at end of tail, 50 ; ear from top of head in dried skin, 80. 



Top of head, top of neck and shoulders ferruginous buffy, the tips of 

 the hairs grayish and with a slight mixture of black-tipped hairs. This 

 color extends down the median line of the back, forming a distinct dorsal 



' Felis pearsoni on the plates. 



