50 WILD NEIGHBORS CHAP. 
localities to profitable ranching. These forays 
happen as often by day as by night; and the de- 
plorable feature of them is, that the marauder, 
with true brutish ferocity, is not content with sat- 
isfying his present hunger, but keeps on slashing 
right and left until he has struck down every ani- 
mal within reach. Thus in many cases nineteen 
or twenty sheep have been slaughtered in a single 
foray, a little blood only being sucked from 
each one. The same story comes from the cattle, 
sheep, horse, and llama owners of South America, 
where, in the Andes, this animal abounds nearly 
up to the snow-line. Patagonian shepherds told 
Mr. Spears of losing from forty to one hundred 
and twenty sheep in a single night. 
The manner of attack has been described, —a 
stealthy approach, followed by a lightning-like 
spring. The attempt, in the case of a large quad- 
ruped, is to knock it down with one blow of the 
muscular paw, then instantly to seize and pull 
back the head, breaking the neck; Darwin notes 
in his “ Voyage,” that he examined the skeletons 
of many llamas, said to have been killed by pumas, 
whose necks were dislocated in this manner. If 
that fails, a single bite of the long, lance-like, sec- 
torial teeth on each side of the upper jaw, com- 
pletes the work. , 
The quarry is not eaten on the spot, but is taken 
away to be devoured at leisure. Small animals 
are lifted free from the ground, but those as heavy 
