THE COUGAR. 131 



horn, white goat, and every kind of deer, while 

 it also preys on all the smaller beasts, such 

 as foxes, coons, rabbits, beavers, and even 

 gophers, rats, and mice. It sometimes makes a 

 thorny meal of the porcupine, and if sufficiently 

 hungry attacks and eats its smaller cousin the 

 lynx. It is not a brave animal ; nor does it 

 run its prey down in open chase. It always 

 make its attacks by stealth, and if possible 

 from behind, and relies on two or three tre- 

 mendous springs to bring it on the doomed 

 creature's back. It uses its claws as well as 

 its teeth in holding and killing the prey. If 

 possible it always seizes a large animal by the 

 throat, whereas the wolf's point of attack is 

 more often the haunch or flank. Small deer 

 or sheep it will often knock over and kill, 

 merely using its big paws ; sometimes it breaks 

 their necks. It has a small head compared to 

 the jaguar, and its bite is much less danger- 

 ous. Hence, as compared to its larger and 

 bolder relative, it places more trust in its claws 

 and less in its teeth. 



Though the cougar prefers woodland, it is 

 not necessarily a beast of the dense forests 

 only ; for it is found in all the plains country, 

 living in the scanty timber belts which fringe 

 the streams, or among the patches of brush in 

 the Bad Lands. The persecution of hunters 

 however always tends to drive it into the most 

 i thickly wooded and broken fastnesses of the 

 mountains. The she has from one to three 

 kittens, brought forth in a cave or a secluded 

 lair, under a dead log or in very thick brush, 



