Page:Babyhood of Wild Beasts.djvu/275

Rh blind and helpless, and their little tails striped with many black rings.

I knew I had stumbled into the lair of some wild animal and I ran home as fast as my short legs would carry me, but not before I had taken a horrified look at a heap of turkey feathers lying beside the log.

Luckily the lady of the house was out when I called. The lost chicken found his own way home. I didn't trouble about looking for him any more.

The Puma babies arrive about the first of May. Usually they are from two to four in number. They are spotted and ring-tailed like the little fellows I have described in the hollow log.

The eyes open before the ninth day. Their pretty black spots and markings usually disappear by the sixth month, leaving them fawn grey in colour.

The pretty tawny coat is set off by a patch of white on either side of the muzzle and black lips. About the 18th or 20th day the milk teeth appear and the Puma babies get ready for a little bite of solid food. Mother Puma weans them between