CHAPTER TL 
THE PUMA, on LION OE AMERICA, 
Tiik Puma lias been singularly unfortunate in its 
biograpliers. Formerly it often happened that 
writers were led away by isolated and highly exag- 
gerated incidents to attribute very shining quali- 
ties to their favourite animals ; the lion of the Old 
World thus came to be regarded as brave and 
magnanimous above all beasts of the field — the 
Bayard of the four-footed kind, a reputation which 
these prosaic and sceptical times have not suffered 
it to keep. Precisely the contrary has happened 
wdth the puma of literature ; for, although to those 
personally acquainted with the habits of this lesser 
lion of the New World it is known to possess a 
marvellous courage and daring, it is nevertheless 
always spoken of in books of natural history as the 
most pusillanimous of the larger carnivores. It 
does not attack man, and Azara is perfectly correct 
when he affirms that it never hurts, or threatens to 
hurt, man or child, even when it finds them sleep- 
ing. This, however, is not a full statement of the 
facts ; the puma will not even defend itself against 
man. How natural, then, to conclude that it is too 
timid to attack a human being, or to defend itself, 
but scarcely philosophical ; for even the most 
cowardly carnivoi’es we know — dogs and hyienas, 
