The Cat Tribe 



51 



was scarce, declared that 4,000 jaguars were killed annually, and 2,000 skins exported from 

 Buenos Ayres alone. It was clearly common on tlie Pampas in his day, and maile as gieat 

 havoc among the cattle and horses as it does to-day. 



Ti]E Puma. 



The Puma is a far more interesting creature. It is found from the mountains in Montana, 

 next the Canadian boundary, to the south of Patagonia. Yankee stories of its ferocity may 

 have some foundation ; but the writer believes tliere is no recorded instance of the nortliern 

 puma attacking man un})rovoked, though in the few places where it now survives it kills 

 cattle-calves and colts. It is relentlessly liunted witli dogs, treed, and shot. As to the ]iuma 



Photo by Ottamar AnscliiUz] 



IBerUn. 



FEMALE PUMA. 

 This shows a puuia alert and vigilant, with eais iiriLked furwaid. 



of the southern plains and central forests, the natives, whether Indians or Gauchos, agree with 

 the belief, steadily handed down from the days of the first Spanish conquest, that the ^ puma 

 is the one wild cat which is natui'ally friendly to man. The old Spaniards called it aiiiii/o del 

 Gristiano (the Christian's frieird) ; and Mr. Hudson, in " The NaturaUst in La Plata." gives 

 much evidence of this most curious and interesting tendency: "It is notorious that where the 

 puma is the only large beast of prey it is perfectly safe for a small child to go out and sleep 

 on the plain. . . . The puma is always at heart a kitten, taking unmeasured delight in its 

 frolics ; and when, as often happens, one lives alone in the desert, it will anuise itself for hours 

 fighting mock battles or playing hide-and-seek with imaginary companions, or lying in wait 

 and putting all its wonderful strategy in practice to capture a passing butterfly." From 

 Azara downwards these stories have been told too often not to be largely true ; and in old natural 



