II THE FATHER OF GAME SI 
as a calf or deer are dragged away into the bushes, 
the accounts in some books of its “ flinging its prey 
over its back,” and galloping away with it, being 
manifest exaggerations. Often he does not devour 
the flesh at once, or only begins upon it, then drags 
it away, covers it with leaves and brush, and waits 
to finish his meal when he is more hungry. When 
he has gorged himself, he retires a little distance 
and lies down to sleep. Hunters, knowing this 
habit, search the neighborhood of a “kill” as soon 
as they learn of one, sure that the puma is near 
by, and well aware that he is little to be feared in 
that state. Few men would be foolhardy enough 
to poke round in the brush in the hope of arousing 
a leopard from his after-dinner nap! 
There is a widespread notion that the puma 
always lies in wait for prey upon the limbs of 
trees, and thence leaps upon its back. It appears 
that it may do—and has done—so in special 
places, as at the salt-licks of Kentucky, and at cer- 
tain springs in Texas, where deer regularly came 
to drink, but certainly it is not a general, nor would 
it be a profitable, habit. Indeed, this animal shows 
a marked reluctance to climbing, rarely taking to 
trees except when pursued by a pack of peccaries, 
coyotes, or dogs, and then only for safety, and not 
as a point for advantageous attack. It frequently : 
leaps from rocky elevations, however, and to an 
astonishing distance. Merriam says that on level 
ground a spring of twenty feet is by no means 
