THE MOUNTAIN LION. 



THIS is only one of the names by 

 which the puma (Felts concolor) 

 is known in the United States. 

 He has different local names, 

 such as tiger, cougar, catamount and 

 panther, or "painter," as the backwoods- 

 men entitle him, and silvery lion. 



The puma ranges the whole of both 

 the Americas from the Straits of Ma- 

 gellan to where the increasing cold 

 in the north of Canada blocks his pas- 

 sage. Like many other large animals, 

 however,, the puma has retired before 

 the advance of civilization, and in many 

 of the more thickly populated portions 

 of the United States a straggler, even, 

 is rarely to be found. 



The haunts of the puma depend upon 

 the nature of the country. In sections 

 well-wooded he decidedly prefers for- 

 ests to plains; but his favorite spots are 

 edges of forests and plains grown with 

 very high grass. He always selects for 

 his abode such spots as afford some 

 shelter, in the vicinity of rocks which 

 have caverns for secure concealment, 

 and in which to bring forth his young. 

 He spends the day sleeping on trees, in 

 bushes, or in the high grass; in the 

 evening and at night he goes forth to 

 hunt. He sometimes covers great dis- 

 tances in a single night, and sportsmen 

 do not always find him near the place 

 where he struck down his prey. 



All smaller, weak mammals are his 

 prey — deer, sheep, colts, calves, and 

 small quadrupeds generally. When, 

 however, his prey is so large that it 

 cannot all be devoured at one meal, the 

 animal covers it with leaves or buries it 

 in the earth, returning later to finish his 

 repast. This habit is sometimes taken 

 advantage of by his human enemy, who. 

 poisoning the hidden carcass with 

 strychnine, often manages to secure the 

 lion when he comes back to eat it. 

 The use of poison against these and 

 other carnivorous animals by the farm- 

 er and stock-raiser has become so gen- 

 eral in the West they are rapidly becom- 

 ing exterminated. If it were not for 

 some such means of defense as this, the 

 sheep-raisers and cattle-growers would 

 be quite powerless to protect their herds 



from the attacks of the mountain lion 

 and other beasts of prey. 



The puma is a very bloodthirsty ani- 

 mal, and whether hungry or not, usually 

 attacks every animal, excepting dogs, 

 that comes in his way. When hungry, 

 however, he disdains no sort of food, 

 feeding even upon the porcupine, not- 

 withstanding the quills which lacerate 

 his mouth and face, or the skunk, heed- 

 less of that little animal's peculiar 

 venom. Ordinarily the puma will not 

 attack man, fleeing, indeed, from him 

 when surprised, but he has been known 

 when emboldened by hunger to make 

 such attacks. He, of course, sometimes 

 kills the hunter who has wounded him, 

 though even then, by the cautious. He 

 is little feared ; but an unprovoked as- 

 sault, such as the mangling of a woman 

 in Pennsylvania, in the eighties, is rare. 



It is the habit of the puma to spring 

 upon his prey from an eminence such 

 as a ledge of rocks, a tree, or a slight rise 

 of ground. If he fails to strike his vic- 

 tim, he seldom pursues it for any con- 

 siderable distance. In northern regions, 

 however, he sometimes pursues the 

 deer when they are almost helpless in 

 the deep snow. When he has seized 

 his victim, he tears open its neck, and 

 laps its blood before he begins to eat. 

 He devours every part of a small ani- 

 mal,, but the larger ones he eats only in 

 part — the head, neck, and shoulders — 

 burying the rest. 



Very young cubs when captured soon 

 become thoroughly tamed, enjoying the 

 liberty of a house like a dog. When 

 petted they purr like cats and manifest 

 their affection in much the same man- 

 ner. When displeased they growl, but 

 a roar has never been heard from them. 

 There is one drawback to a tame puma, 

 however, says Brehm. When he has 

 great affection for his master and likes 

 to play with him, he hides at his ap- 

 proach and unexpectedly jumps on him. 

 One can imagine how startling and un- 

 comfortable would be such an ill-timed 

 caress. An old puma, when captured, 

 sometimes rejects all food, preferring 

 starvation to the loss of liberty. 



