16 A BOOK-LOVER'S HOLIDAYS 



doe had claw marks on her face, but no fang 

 marks on the head or neck; apparently the 

 neck had been broken by her own plunging 

 fall; then the cougar had bitten a hole in the 

 flank and eaten part of one haunch; but it had 

 not disembowelled its prey, as an African lion 

 would have done. Another deer, a buck, was 

 seized in similar manner; but the death-wound 

 was inflicted with the teeth, in singular fashion, 

 a great hole being torn into the chest, where 

 the neck joins the shoulder. Evidently there 

 is no settled and invariable method of killing. 

 We saw no signs of any cougar being injured 

 in the struggle; the prey was always seized 

 suddenly and by surprise, and in such fashion 

 that it could make no counter-attack. 



Few African leopards would attack such 

 quarry as the big male cougars do. Yet the 

 leopard sometimes preys on man, and it is the 

 boldest and most formidable of fighters when 

 brought to bay. The cougar, on the contrary, 

 is the least dangerous to man of all the big cats. 

 There are authentic instances of its attacking 

 man ; but they are not merely rare but so wholly 

 exceptional that in practise they can be en- 

 tirely disregarded. There is no more need of 

 being frightened when sleeping in, or wander- 

 ing after nightfall through, a forest infested by 



