THE MOUNTAIN LION. 
THIS is only one of the names by 
which the puma (Felis concolor) 
is known in the United States. 
He has different local names, 
such as tiger, cougar, catamount and 
panther, or "painter," as the backwoods- 
men entitle him, and silvery lion. 
The puma ranges the whole of both 
the Americas from the Straits of Ma- 
gellan to where the increasing cold 
in the north of Canada blocks his pas- 
sage. Like many other large animals, 
however, the puma has retired before 
the advance of civilization, and in many 
of the more thickly populated portions 
of the United States a straggler, even, 
is rarely to be found. 
The haunts of the puma depend upon 
the nature of the country. In sections 
well-wooded he decidedly prefers for- 
ests to plains; but his favorite spots are 
edges of forests and plains grown with 
very high grass. He always selects for 
his abode such spots as afford some 
shelter, in the vicinity of rocks which 
have caverns for secure concealment, 
and in which to bring forth his young. 
He spends the day sleeping on trees, in 
bushes, or in the high grass; in the 
evening and at night he goes forth to 
hunt. He sometimes covers great dis- 
tances in a single night, and sportsmen 
do not always find him near the place 
where he struck down his prey. 
All smaller, weak mammals are his 
prey — deer, sheep, colts, calves, and 
small quadrupeds generally. When, 
however, his prey is so large that it 
cannot all be devoured at one meal, the 
animal covers it with leaves or buries it 
in the earth, returning later to finish his 
repast. This habit is sometimes taken 
advantage of by his human enemy, who, 
poisoning the hidden carcass with 
strychnine, often manages to secure the 
lion when he comes back to eat it. 
The use of poison against these and 
other carnivorous animals by the farm- 
er and stock-raiser has become so gen- 
eral in the West they are rapidly becom- 
ing exterminated. If it were not for 
some such means of defense as this, the 
sheep-raisers and cattle-growers would 
be quite powerless to protect their herds 
from the attacks of the mountain lion 
and other beasts of prey. 
The puma is a very bloodthirsty ani- 
mal, and whether hungry or not, usually 
attacks every animal, excepting dogs, 
that comes in his way. When hungry, 
j however, he disdains no sort of food, 
feeding even upon the porcupine, not- 
withstanding the quills which lacerate 
his mouth and face, or the skunk, heed- 
less of that little animal's peculiar 
venom. Ordinarily the puma will not 
attack man, fleeing, indeed, from him 
when surprised, but he has been known 
when emboldened by hunger to make 
such attacks. He, of course, sometimes 
kills the hunter who has wounded him, 
though even then, by the cautious, he 
is little feared; but an unprovoked as- 
sault, such as the mangling of a woman 
in Pennsylvania in the eighties, is rare. 
It is the habit of the puma to spring 
i upon his prey from an eminence such 
j as a ledge of rocks, a tree, or a slight rise 
of ground. If he fails to strike his vic- 
tim, he seldom pursues it for any con- 
siderable distance. In northern regions, 
however, he sometimes pursues the 
deer when they are almost helpless in 
the deep snow. When he has seized 
his victim, he tears open its neck, and 
laps its blood before he begins to eat. 
He devours every part of a small ani- 
mal, but the larger ones he eats only in 
part — the head, neck, and shoulders — 
burying the rest. 
Very young cubs when captured soon 
become thoroughly tamed, enjoying the 
liberty of a house like a dog. When 
petted they purr like cats and manifest 
their affection in much the same man- 
ner. When displeased they growl, but 
a roar has never been heard from them. 
There is one drawback to a tame puma, 
however, says Brehm. When he has 
great affection for his master and likes 
to play with him, he hides at his ap- 
proach and unexpectedly jumps on him. 
I One can imagine how startling and un- 
I comfortable would be such an ill-timed 
! caress. An old puma, when captured, 
i sometimes rejects all food, preferring 
starvation to the loss of liberty. 
Every movement of the puma is full 
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