CAT FAMILY 



147 



they are entirely at home, their haunts are 

 always inaccessible, and it is doubtful if they will 

 ever be exterminated." 



Calves, colts, sheep, dogs, chickens, in fact 

 any kind of flesh is the Cougar's diet ; it shows a 

 pronounced jireference for lamb but when fam- 

 ished will not hesitate to attack a steer. Its mid- 

 night raids are carefully planned, its des- 

 cent on the prey is quick, sure and deadly, it 

 takes no chances and when opportunity oflfers 

 will kill more than it can possibly consume, wan- 

 tonly satisfying its lust for blood. These great 

 Cats live in communities, each group ranging 

 over a certain zone, usually along both sides of a 

 valley for many miles of its length. The group 

 consists of one male and from five to ten females, 

 each with her own lair. 



The female is nearly as large as the male and 

 is his counterpart in appearance. She picks a 

 permanent abode, a pile of loose rock, under and 

 through which she can crawl. Here with but one 

 possible entrance to guard, she rears her young, 

 and this guardianship is her most serious busi- 

 ness in life, for when the litter has been born the 

 male will haunt the neighborhood watching for 

 a chance to kill them. 



The extent to which a female Cougar will go 

 in defence of her young is illustrated by a story 

 that Mr. Ferguson tells of a fight between this 

 animal and a Rear which stumbled upon her den. 

 " The Bear peacefully ambled along evidently 

 unconscious of the Lion's presence when, as he 

 approached the pile of rock where her kittens 

 were hidden, the Lion suddenly appeared. She 

 might just as well have remained hidden, and if 

 she had the Bear would, without doubt, have 

 gone on his way in peace. But she didn't — the 

 watchers saw a dark body shoot out and with 

 one long leap land squarely on the Bear's back. 



" The surprised brute reared and tried to throw 

 her off, he frantically clawed the air and tried 

 to reach her, then he rolled on the ground ; the 

 Lion let go and with another spring was at his 

 throat. The animals were too far away for the 

 watchers to observe closely the details of the 

 fight, but it must have been interesting while it 

 lasted. As it was. they thrashed about and 

 finally, locked in each other's embrace, rolled 

 over the edge and tumbled down the hillside, 

 over and over into the gulch below. The miners 

 found them in the creek bed, both dead, with 

 almost every bone broken." 



The Cougar takes readily to the trees, being 

 a much better climber than the Jaguar. But 



it almost always hunts upon the ground, trying 

 to creep stealthily up to its victim, and to spring 

 upon it before its presence is even suspected. It 

 scarcely ever veiUures to attack a man, but will 

 follow him for a long distance as though wait- 

 mg an opportunity to pounce upon him 

 unawares. But if he suddenly turns and faces 

 the animal, it will always slink away, even if he 

 is quite unarmed. Sometimes too, it will allow 

 itself to be killed without attempting to defend 

 itself at all; so farmers have a rather poor 

 opinion of its courage. The farmers, however, 

 have very good reason for dreading the animal, 

 for it is a terrible enemy to sheep, and has been 

 known to kill as many as fifty in a single night. 

 And it will also leap suddenly upon a horse or 

 cow and break their necks, just as the Jaguar 

 does. 



Although, in some ways cowardly, the Cougar 

 will often fight the Jaguar itself. It is the 

 weaker animal of the two, but is so exceedingly 

 quick in its movements, and makes such excel- 

 lent use of its teeth and claws, that in many 

 cases it gets the better of the battle. 



Hunting a Cougar is a highly exciting sport, 

 because of the element of the unexpected. 

 Mr. Charles J. Lisle thus describes such a hunt 

 in Idaho : " Bursting over the little knoll directly 

 ahead of us they came. A long, lithe beast, 

 like a silvery brown shadow, that traveled in 

 unbelievably long leaps, was the first to come in 

 view. I do not think it saw us ; but it had run 

 a long way — far longer than a Cougar will 

 usually travel ahead of a pack of hounds — 

 and it was due to take a tree. There was a big- 

 limbed red fir straight ahead of it, standing out 

 apart from all the others. The limbs grew down 

 close to the ground, making it easy to climb. Up 

 the tree sprang the great Cat, not farther than 

 the width of a street from where we stood. 



" Hardly had the Cougar reached the middle 

 of the tree and settled down on a comfortable 

 limb when the dogs burst over the crest of the 

 knoll. They were so close that they must have 

 been hunting partly by sight the last few minutes 

 and they were crazed with excitement. As the 

 hunters started in to surround the foot of the 

 tree where the Cougar was. the dogs came at us 

 with the ferocity of a pack of wolve:.. \\"illiams 

 called sharply to the pack, and none of them 

 bit him ; but two of our party were bitten before 

 the dogs realized that we were not the Cougar ! 



" Meanwhile, the great Cat lay flattened out 

 on the limb of the tree, fifty feet above the 



