is wonderful bounds, and with a light,
quick stroke, arrest the winged prey before it has time to soar
beyond reach. The puma is a good angler. Sitting by the water's
edge he watches for his victims, and no sooner does an unfortunate
fish swim within reach, than the nimble paw is outstretched, and
it is swept out of the water on dry land, and eagerly devoured.

A puma has been known to follow the track of travellers for days
together, only daring to show itself at rare intervals, and never
endeavoring to make an attack except through stealth. The animal
will often approach cautiously upon a traveller until sufficiently
near to make its fatal spring; but if the pursued party suddenly turn
round and face the crawling creature, the beast becomes discomfited
at once, and will retreat from the gaze which seems to it a positive
terror. So long as a puma can be kept in sight, no danger need be
feared from the animal but it will improve every opportunity of
springing unobservedly upon a heedless passer by. The total length
of the puma is six feet and a half, of which the tail occupies a
little over two feet. Its color is of a uniform light tawny tint,
fading into light grey on the under parts, and the tip of the tail
[Page 162]
is black. The puma is one of the few members of the Cat tribe, which
are without the usual spots or stripes so observable in the tiger and
leopard. The lion has the same uniformity of color, and it is perhaps
partly on that account that the panther is so often known as the
American lion. In infancy the young pumas possess decided tiger-like
markings, and leopard-like spots, but these disappear altogether as
the animal increases in size. The cougar has learned by experience a
wholesome fear of man, and as civilization has extended throughout
our country, the animals have been forced to retire from the neighborhood
of human habitations and hide themselves in thick, uncultivated forest
lands.

[Illustration]

Sometimes, however, the animal, urged by fierce hunger, will venture
on a marauding expedition for several miles, and although not an
object of personal dread to the inhabitants, he often becomes a
pestilent neighbor to the farmer, committing great ravages among
his flocks and herds, and making sad havoc in his poultry yard.
It is not the fortune of every puma, however, to reside in the
neighborhood of such easy prey as pigs, sheep and poultry, and the
greater number of these animals are forced to