Lion-house; and when he did so, every Cat in the place started to its feet, and rushed to the bars of its cage with great demonstrations of anger and ferocity. They evidently felt that here, at least, was one of the black, two-legged animals on which their fathers and grandfathers had fed from time immemorial, and that now was their time to strike for a pleasant change of diet, after the monotony of beef bones, ignominiously cut up and parcelled out to them. THE PUMA.[21] The Puma, or “South American Lion,” is the second great American Carnivore. It occurs far more widely spread in the continent than the Jaguar, ranging from the cold regions of the Strait of Magellan up to 50° or 60° north latitude. In appearance it is not unlike a small Lioness, having a tint somewhat similar to the characteristic tawny colour of the monarch of Africa, but darker, greyer, and less rich; the mane, too, is absent. Its head is proportionally, as well as absolutely, much smaller than that of the Lion; its face is rounder, and it is altogether a much smaller beast: its average size being about thirty-nine or forty inches from the snout to the root of the thick, strong tail, the latter again being some twenty-five or twenty-six inches long, and the height about the same. Indistinct spots occur, as in the Lion, on the belly and the inside of the legs. The hind-quarters are very large, and are kept higher than the shoulders in walking. The skin beneath the belly is remarkably loose and pendulous. Unlike the Jaguar, the Puma avoids water, although well able to swim when necessary. It is as much at home in trees as on solid ground, and is a terror to the Capuchin and other Monkeys which abound in the forests of South America. It is, however, a far more cowardly animal than the Jaguar, and is not feared by the natives to anything like the same degree. Mr. Darwin, who had ample opportunity of observing its habits, writes thus of it in his “Naturalist’s Voyage”:-- “This animal has a wide geographical range, being found from the equatorial forests, throughout the deserts of Patagonia, as far south as the damp and cold latitudes (53° to 54°) of Tierra del Fuego. I have seen its footsteps in the Cordillera of Central Chili, at an elevation of at least 10,000 feet. In La Plata the Puma preys chiefly on Deer, Ostriches, Bizcacha, and other quadrupeds. It there rarely attacks cattle or Horses, and most rarely man. In Chili, however, it destroys other quadrupeds. I heard, likewise, of two men and a woman who had been thus killed. It is asserted that the Puma always kills its prey by springing on the shoulders, and then drawing back the head with one of its paws until the vertebræ break. I have seen, in Patagonia, the skeletons of Guanacos, with their necks thus dislocated.