THE LIFE OF MAMMALS 
men employed slept, and without making any demonstration 
of hostility toward those who fled before him entered their 
dining room and helped himself to the meat on the table, 
aficr which he quietly passed out of a side door and was shot 
from a window.” Does this betoken cowardice? Was it the 
bravado of ignorance? Or was it simply cool daring — admi- 
rable courage ? 
What shall be said of the tales told of the puma on the Argen- 
tine pampas by J. R. Spears,’ W. H. Hudson,® and others 
regarded as competent and honest naturalists? Hudson declares 
that although the puma there is undoubtedly a bold and coura- 
geous animal, yet the account given long ago by Azara, that it 
will never attack or threaten to hurt either man or child, even 
when found aslecp, is not only true but actually understated. 
As a matter of fact, he says, it will not even defend itself against 
a man, though constantly persecuted because of its depreda- 
tions. Its ravages in some parts of Patagonia are so great that 
the raising of horses is unprofitable, and Mr. Hudson gives many 
most extraordinary stories of this friendliness, related to him as 
facts of personal experience by the plainsmen of his country, 
whose word otherwise he always trusted. Nor is he alone. 
Every traveler in Patagonia makes similar assertions; and 
W. A. Perry,?® whose excellent account of the animal’s habits in 
Oregon and neighborhood is supplemented by many stories of 
personal adventure, describes how several cougars there have 
insisted upon an unpleasantly close but seemingly playful 
acquaintance with, rather than have made an attack upon, hu- 
man beings. It is evident, at Icast, that the animal displays a 
very different disposition at one time or place than at another. 
Cougar hunting is practicable only with the aid of hounds, 
and success depends upon their skill. A pack will embrace 
Huatag several more or less houndlike dogs whose busi- 
the Puma. ness it is to scent the trail of the puma, and follow 
it (and nothing else) until the beast is brought to bay, or, as is 
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