52 WILD NEIGHBORS CHAP. 
uncommon, and gives an account of one measur- 
ing sixty feet, where the cat leaped from a ledge 
twenty feet high and pushed the deer he struck a 
rod farther by the force of the impact. I have 
read somewhere of a pair known to have their lair 
on top of a rock that could be reached only by a 
vertical jump of twenty feet. 
Their ordinary gait is a slouching walk or trot, 
and they are not swift of foot, except for a short 
succession of leaps. Otherwise, their movements 
have all that union of grace and quickness charac- 
teristic of cats. 
The ‘“blood-curdling screams” of the puma have 
furnished forth many a fine tale for the camp-fire, 
but evidence of this screaming, which will bear 
sober cross-examination, is scant. I myself have 
heard in the Rocky Mountains at night, shrill 
screams, so piercing and cat-like, yet of so much 
force and loudness, that it did not seem likely any- 
thing less than a cougar could utter them. I be- 
lieved then, and am still of the opinion, that these 
were the cries of a puma: but IJ did not see the 
animal. Indeed, evidence so positive as this will 
be difficult to obtain, since loud yells are heard 
mainly at night, and would be unlikely to be 
emitted in the presence of a listener at any time. 
Says Mr. W. A. Perry, who has had a long per- 
sonal acquaintance with these beasts, and in “ The 
Big Game of North America” has written an ex- 
cellent account of their habits in the Northwest: 
