INTER-OCEAN HUNTING TALES 



except when one has been rounded up by a 

 pack of dogs. In their habits they are stealthy 

 and secretive, carefully keeping concealed, 

 and never willing to fight unless cornered, 

 with no chance of escape. Occasionally, when 

 the odds are overwhelmingly in its favor, a 

 lion will provoke a battle, but this is not often 

 the case. 



In disposition and character the mountain 

 lion belies its name; of all carnivorous beasts 

 it is, perhaps, the most cowardly. Being ex- 

 ceedingly destructive, it not only kills for 

 food, but it also kills out of wantonness. I 

 have run across numbers of deer that have 

 been destroyed by the same animal within 

 short distances of each other, the carcasses 

 being allowed to remain almost entire. It 

 has also been stated on good authority that 

 one lion will be likely to kill in the course of a 

 year about one hundred and fifty deer. 



Considering its destructive disposition, I 

 have no doubt that in a country where the 

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