44 FLESH-EATERS 



powerful male, named "Lopez," from the interior of Para- 

 guay. After two days' preliminary introduction through 

 their cage fronts, the two animals were placed together. 

 No sooner had the female entered the cage of Lopez than 

 he rushed upon her, seized her neck between his jaws, and 

 by a square bite crushed two of the neck vertebrae, killing her 

 almost as quickly as if her head had been cut off with an axe. 

 The murderous male was fully one-fourth taller, and was 

 larger in every way than the female. 



The Puma, also called Mountain "Lion" and Cougar,^ 

 is the most widely known cat animal of North America. It 

 is found in all the great western mountain ranges of the 

 United States, in many tracts of "bad lands" in Wyoming and 

 Montana, in British Columbia, and in the Adirondacks and 

 Florida. Southward it ranges over table-lands and through 

 tropical forests, all the way to Patagonia. In the United 

 States it is most abundant, and also most accessible, in Routt 

 County, Colorado, where it is easily found by dogs, chased 

 into low trees, and shot without danger. In this manner Mr. 

 John B. Goff has killed nearly three hundred Pumas, "only 

 two of which fought courageously." 



Hundreds of thrilling stories of (imaginary) adventures 

 with Pumas have been written and printed, but in reality 

 this animal is less to be dreaded than a savage dog. It ap- 

 pears to be true, however, that it occasionally follows belated 

 hunters or travellers, out of curiosity. It is now a well-estab- 

 lished fact that prowling Pumas do sometimes scream, in a 

 manner calculated to inspire terror, just as caterwauling cats 



^ Fe'lis con'co-lor, and other species and races recently described. 



