150 
THE NATURALIST IN LA PLATA. 
July, 1892 
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 carnivores we know—dogs and 
hyaenas, for instance—will readily attack a disabled or sleeping 
man when pressed by hunger ; and when driven to desperation 
no animal is too small or too feeble to make a show of resist¬ 
ance. In such a case * even the armadillo defends itself,’ 
as the gaucho proverb says. Besides, the conclusion is in 
contradiction to many other well-known facts. Putting aside 
the puma’s passivity in the presence of man, it is a bold 
hunter that invariably prefers large to small game ; in desert 
places killing peccary, tapir, ostrich, deer, huanaco, &c., all 
powerful, well-armed, or swift animals. Huanaco skeletons 
seen in Patagonia almost invariably have the neck dislocated, 
showing that the puma was the executioner. Those only 
who have hunted the huanaco on the sterile plains and 
mountains it inhabits know how wary, keen-scented, and fleet 
of foot it is. I once spent several weeks with a surveying 
party in a district where pumas were very abundant, and 
saw not less than half a dozen deer every day, freshly killed 
in most cases, and all with dislocated necks. Where prey is 
scarce and difficult to capture, the puma, after satisfying 
its hunger, invariably conceals the animal is has killed, 
covering it over carefully with grass and brushwood ; 
these deer, however, had all been left exposed to the cara- 
caras and foxes after a portion of the breast had been eaten, 
and in many cases the flesh had not been touched, the captor 
having satisfied itself with sucking the blood. It struck me 
very forcibly that the puma of the desert pampas is, among 
mammals, like the peregrine falcon of the same district 
among birds ; for there this wide-ranging raptore only attacks 
comparatively large birds, and, after fastidiously picking a 
meal from the flesh of the head and neck, abandons the 
untouched body to the polybori and other hawks of the more 
ignoble sort. 
“ In pastoral districts the puma is very destructive to the 
larger domestic animals, and has an extraordinary fondness 
for horse flesh. This was first noticed by Molina, whose 
‘ Natural History of Chili ’ was written a century and a half 
ago. In Patagonia I heard on all sides that it was extremely 
difficult to breed horses, as the colts were mostly killed by 
the pumas. A native told me that on one occasion, while 
driving his horses home through the thicket, a puma sprang 
out of the bushes on to a colt following behind the troop, 
killing it before his eyes and not more than six yards from his 
horse’s head. In this instance, my informant said, the puma 
alighted directly on the colt’s back, with one fore foot grasping 
