REMINISCENCES FROM THE MELBOURNE ZOO. 
89 
obeying orders that were made only for his good. Thereafter three 
rows of barbed wire were placed before the cage of every animal that 
could so maltreat any stupid trespasser. 
PUMAS AND JAGUARS 
The baby puma in this illustration is the seventh child born to this 
patient mother at the Melbourne Zoo. Prior to its coming she had had 
two sets of triplets, all daughters. The first three were sold, as other 
gardens were very anxious to get such good specimens; but the two 
surviving ones of the second trio are still to be seen in cages next their 
mother’s. The dead one was one of the quaintest little freaks ever seen. 
It had a perfect body, but its legs were only about six inches long, and 
it seemed to move about like a new species of lizard, because, with the 
curious habit the puma has of holding its head very low as it walks, 
this funny little thing almost touched the ground when it moved. So 
it was mercifully destroyed, although it is to be feared that if it had 
been allowed to live it would have been regarded by curiosity seekers as 
one of the sights of the gardens. The latest baby is a fine healthy 
romp that refuses to allow its mother a moment’s peace while it is awake. 
She is a semi-orphan, for her father died of pneumonia just before her 
birth. 
The puma comes from America. He used to be called the “friend 
of man,” because it was asserted that he would protect man from the 
jaguar and other beasts of prey, and not even when attacked would he 
hit man back. A story used to be told that if a man hurt him the puma 
would cry, great tears falling from his soft, bright eyes as he reproached 
his assailant for his ingratitude; but this is one of the many pretty 
myths that have grown up about favorites in the animal world. The 
Spaniards, when they went to Central and South America, called the puma 
“the friend of the Christians,” because of the many stories told by the 
pioneers of the way the pumas protected them from danger when asleep. 
But the animals did not discern any difference between the Christian 
and the heathen, for the colored races of America had just as many 
pleasant tales to tell of the beautiful creature. Apparently his warn- 
ing to men of the approach of the jaguar was not because of his friendli- 
ness towards man as much as because of his deadly hatred of the jaguar. 
