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 I 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 bo 

 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 : 



