THE AMERICAN LION 
from a type following the more prevailing cat fashion. 
The puma is limited to America, and, like the tiger, it 
can bear with impunity the extremes of heat and cold ; 
it is at home in the wintry north, and lurks in the damp 
and heated forests of the south. The puma has the 
usual intent look of the feline race, and has the reputa- 
tion of being a mild and peaceful animal where man 
is concerned. It is held to be as innocuous to the 
weaned child as is the cockatrice, and has even been 
called, according to Mr. Hudson, “amigo del cris- 
tiano.’’ But itis a ferocious beast where deer, domestic 
animals and vizcachas are concerned. Ineffective as 
its lithe form would appear to be for any purpose save 
swift running, it can leap upon a deer and break its 
neck with the ease of heavier beasts, like the tiger. 
To most naturalists, at any rate in Europe, there is but 
one puma, Felis concolor. But-in America there are 
different opinions, and the pumas have been split up 
into a considerable number of races, or even distinct 
species. In the south of the United States the 
puma is spoken of as the mountain lion. Another 
name is the native “Indian” cougar. The name of 
“lion”? appears to have, or at least to have had, a 
certain amount of justification. It is not, as might be 
thought, derived from the loose application of a word 
in common use to anything that it might or might not 
fit; but the first Europeans who examined the puma 
thought that they had before them merely the maneless 
females, and came to the conclusion that the ferocious 
males were not to be caught or slain by the compara- 
tively unarmed natives. If anything were wanting to 
prove the cat-like nature of the puma, the fact that it 
purrs in captivity when pleased, and even utters a 
sound approaching to a mew, would settle the matter 
to the satisfaction of everybody. In nature the cries 
of the puma are weird and mournful. But it is on the 
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