148 



MAMMALS OF AMERICA 



ground. It was a pretty shot, one that no one 

 could miss. One of the hunters drew up his 

 rifle, took a quick but careful aim, and put a 

 30.30 bullet through the eye of the big beast. 

 There was a crash as the nearly 200 pounds 

 of Cougar fell down through the Small limbs to 

 the earth. Then the dogs leaped upon the pros- 

 trate foe — a foe that would have attacked as 

 willingly if it had been uninjured and alive, but 

 that alive would have killed in detail ten times 

 as many dogs as there were in the pack — and 

 it was only by the most violent exertions that 

 Williams could draw them off. Fortunately, the 

 Cougar was dead and had not the power to 



" No animal, not even the Wolf, is so rarely 

 seen or so difficult to get without dogs. On the 

 other hand, no other wild beast of its size and 

 power is so easy to kill by the aid of dogs. 

 There are many contradictions in its character. 

 Like the American ^^'olf. it is certainly very 

 much afraid of man ; yet it habitually follows 

 the trail of the hunter or solitary traveler, dog- 

 ging his footsteps, itself always unseen. When 

 hungry it will seize and carry off any dog, yet 

 it will sometimes go up a tree when pursued 

 even by a single small dog, wholly unable to do it 

 the least harm. It is small wonder that the 

 average frontier settler should grow to regard 



Photograph by W. L. Finley 



COUGAR KITTEN 



This pretty little Cougar kitten is evidently meditating upon something interesting. Note the crafty 



expression even in the very young animal 



fight back, otherwise the pack would have been 

 badly cut up." 



Colonel Roosevelt says of the Cougar's pecu- 

 liar traits : " It is the special enemy of the Aloun- 

 tain Sheep. In 1886, while hunting White Goats 

 north of Clarke's Fork of the Columbia, in a 

 region where Cougars were common, I found 

 them preying as freely on the Goats as on the 

 Deer. It rarely catches Antelope, but is quick 

 to seize Rabbits, other small beasts and even 

 Porcupines. 



almost with superstition the great furtive Cat 

 which he never sees but of whose presence he 

 is ever aware. The Cougar is as large, as 

 powerful and as formidably armed as the Indian 

 Panther, and quite as well able to attack man ; 

 yet the instances of its having done so are 

 exceedingly rare. But it is foolish to deny that 

 such attacks on human beings ever occur. It 

 cannot be too often repeated that we must never 

 lose sight of the individual variation in character 

 and conduct among wild beasts." 



