84 WILD ANIMALS. 



Their extreme ferocity in devouring their food, however, is a 

 conspicuous trait of the pumas. Major Smith, according to Mr. 

 Swainson, describes a scene he once witnessed, which is a remark- 

 able illustration of this peculiarity : " A puma, which had been 

 taken and confined, was ordered to be shot ; and the time fixed 

 upon was immediately after the animal had received its food. 

 The first ball went through its body : the only notice he took 

 of it was by a shrill growl, at the same time doubling his 

 efforts to devour his food, which he actually continued to swallow 

 with quantities of his own blood until he fell." 



Pumas are not, even when considered perfectly tame, always to 

 be trusted. In the Times of October, 1860, a case of one 

 creating considerable alarm in Nottingham is reported^ " The 

 animal was being exhibited in a menagerie during the goose-fair 

 holidays, and the African lion-tamer, Metani, was parading, the 

 creature — which was said to be a most harmless specimen, although 

 full-grown — on the stage, when it suddenly caught sight of a dog 

 held by a lad in the crowd. Breaking away from Metani, it 

 sprang off the stage on to the dog, and killed it almost instantly. 

 The people fled in all directions, and the puma seeing another 

 dog some distance off, rushed after it and despatched it as quickly 

 as he had done the first. He was at last recaptured and pacified, 

 being led back to the menagerie with the dead dog in its mouth. 

 Some difl&culty, it is stated^ was experienced in opening the 

 creature's jaws to get the dog away." 



