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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



bobcat has figured largely in hunting literature, 

 and the popular estimate of its character is well 

 attested by the frontier idea of the superlative 

 physical prowess of a man who can "whip his 

 weight in wildcats." Although our wildcat 

 usually weighs less than 20 pounds, if its re- 

 puted fierceness could be sustained it would be 

 an awkward foe. But, so far as man is con- 

 cerned, unless it is cornered and forced to de- 

 fend itself, it is extremely timid and inof- 

 fensive. 



Like all cats, it is very muscular and active, 

 and to the rabbits, squirrels, mice, grouse, and 

 other small game upon which it feeds is a per- 

 sistent and remorseless enemy. Although an 

 expert tree-climber, it spends most of its time 

 on the ground, where it ordinarily seeks its 

 prey. It is most numerous in districts where 

 birds and small mammals abound, and parts of 

 California seem especially favorable for it. At a 

 mountain ranch in the redwood forest south of 

 San Francisco one winter some boys with dogs 

 killed more than eighty bobcats. 



Ordinarily the bobcat seems to be rather un- 

 common, but its nocturnal habits usually pre- 

 vent its real numbers being actually known. 

 In districts where not much hunted it is not 

 uncommonly seen abroad by day, especially in 

 winter, when driven by hunger. 



The bay lynx makes its den in hollows in 

 trees, in small caves, and in openings among 

 rock piles wherever quiet and safety appear 

 assured. Although a shy animal, it persists in 

 settled regions if sufficient woodland or broken 

 country remains to give it shelter. From such 

 retreats it sallies forth at night, and not only 

 do the chicken roosts of careless householders 

 suffer, but toll is even taken among the lambs 

 of sheep herds. 



As in the case of most small cats, the stealthy 

 hunting habits of the bay lynx renders it ex- 

 cessively destructive to ground-frequenting 

 birds, especially to quail, grouse, and other 

 game birds. For this reason, like many of its 

 kind, it is outlawed in all settled parts of the 

 country. 



MOUNTAIN LION (Fells couguar and its 



sul:)species) 



l^he mountain lion, next to the jaguar, is the 

 largest of the cat tribe native to America. In 

 various parts of its range it is also known as 

 the panther, cougar, and puma. It is a slender- 

 bodied animal with a small head and a long 

 round tail, with a total length varying from 

 seven to nine feet and a weight from about 

 150 to 200 pounds. 



It has from two to five young, which are 

 paler brown than the adult and plainly marked 

 with large dusky spots on the liody and with 

 dark bars on the tail. These special markings 

 of the young, as in other animals, are ances- 

 tral, and here appear to indicate that in the 

 remote past our plain brown panther was a 

 spotted cat somewhat like the leopard. 



No other American mammal has a range 

 equal to that of the mountain lion. It origi- 

 nally inhabited both North and South America 



from southern Quebec and Vancouver Island 

 to Patagonia and from the Atlantic to the Pa- 

 cific coasts. Within this enorjnous territory 

 it appears to be equally at home in an extra- 

 ordinary variety of conditions. Formerly it 

 was rather common in the Adirondacks of 

 northern New York and still lives in the high 

 Rocky Mountains of the West, where it en- 

 dures the rigors of the severest winter tem- 

 peratures. It is generally distributed, where 

 large game occurs, in the treeless ranges of the 

 most arid parts of the southwestern deserts, 

 and is also well known in the most humid trop- 

 ical forests of Central and South America, 

 whose gloomy depths are drenched by almost 

 continual rain. 



A number of geographic races of the species 

 have been developed by the varied character 

 of its haunts. These are usually characterized 

 by differences in size and by paler and grayer 

 shades in the arid regions and by darker and 

 browner ones in the humid areas. 



The mountain lion, while powerful enough 

 to l)e dangerous to man, is in reality extremely 

 timid. Owing to its being a potentially dan- 

 gerous animal, the popular conception of it is 

 that of a fearsome beast, whose savage exploits 

 are celebrated in the folk-lore of our frontier. 

 As a matter of fact, few wild animals are less 

 dangerous, although there are authentic ac- 

 counts of wanton attacks upon people, just as 

 there are authentic instances of buck deer and 

 moose becoming aggressive. It has a wild, 

 screaming cry which is thrillingly impressive 

 when the shades 'of evening are throwing a 

 mysterious gloom over the forests. In the 

 mountains of Arizona one summer a mountain 

 lion repeatedly passed along a series of ledges 

 high above my cabin at dusk, uttering this loud 

 weird cry, popularly supposed to resemble the 

 scream of a terrified woman. 



The mountain lion is usually nocturnal, but 

 in regions where it is not hunted it not infre- 

 quently goes abroad by day. It is a tireless 

 wanderer, often traveling many miles in a sin- 

 gle night, sometimes in search of game and 

 again in search of new hunting groimds. I 

 have repeatedly followed its tracks for long 

 distances along trails, and in northern Chihua- 

 hua I once tracked one for a couple of miles 

 from a liare rocky hill straight across the open, 

 grassy plain toward a treeless desert mountain, 

 for which it was heading, some eight or ten 

 miles away. 



Although inoffensive as to people, this cat 

 is such a fierce and relentless enemy of large 

 game and live stock that it is evervwhere an 

 outlaw. Large bounties on its head have re- 

 sulted in its extermination in most parts of 

 the eastern United States and have diminished 

 its numbers elsewhere. It is not only hunted 

 with gun and dog but also with trap and poison. 



A mountain lion usually secures its prey by 

 a silent, cautious stalk, taking advantage of 

 every cover until within striking distance, and 

 then, with one or more powerful leaps, dashing 

 the victim to the ground with all the stunning 

 impact of its weight. In a licautiful live-oak 

 forest on the mountains of San Luis Potosi I 



