Cougar 



ter; every scrap of flesh that is scattered is wanted by one 

 warm-blooded creature or another before warm weather comes 

 iigain. The lynx appears to have its summer home in tangled 

 thickets and snarls of young growth, where the interlocking 

 branches of fallen trees afford protection. Here the ill-natured 

 kittens are raised and taught to hunt, so that when the bitter 

 struggle of winter is forced upon them they may, if possible, 

 hold their own and prolong their lives at the expense of others, 

 in order that their race may live. They hold on to life grimly 

 through long, cold nights in the dark Northern forests, believing 

 somehow that at last spring will be in the woods again, bring- 

 ing flight birds from the South, and awakening the small 

 creatures that sleep all winter down deep in the frozen earth where 

 the most desperate lynx can never reach them. Until then the 

 lynxes must hunt as best they can, tireless and in splendid 

 health, and quite unconscious of the cold, but oh, so hungry! 

 One of the most astonishing facts in nature is the length 

 of time that most flesh-eating animals can go without food, on 

 long hunts through deep snow, night after night, breathing frozen 

 air that drives a man hungry soon after the heartiest meal, they 

 maintain their strength ready for a desperate struggle when 

 "^t last the long pursuit draws to successful end. 



Cougar 



Felis coiigiiar Kerr 



Called also Puma, Mountain Lion, Panther, Painter. 



Length. 8 feet, 6 inches; tail, ) feet. 



Description. Body relatively longer than in the lynx, tail very 

 much longer, no tufts on the ears. General colour pale 

 rufous or yellowish-brown, darker along the back and tail, 

 tip of tail blackish; face grayer, under parts dirty white. 



Range. Formerly Eastern North America, now probably extinct, 

 though a closely allied variety, F. coryi Bangs, the Florida 

 Cougar, still exists in Florida, and others from the Rocky 

 Mountains westward and south throughout South America. 



Apart from the blood-curdlmg tales of most doubtful authen- 

 icity with which every one is familiar, accounts pretty gen- 



388 



