132 HUNTING THE GRISLY. 



It is said that the old he's kill the small male 

 kittens when they get a chance. They cer- 

 tainly at times during the breeding season 

 fight desperately among themselves. Cougars 

 are very solitary beasts ; it is rare to see more 

 than one at a time, and then only a mother 

 and young, or a mated male and female. While 

 she has kittens, the mother is doubly des- 

 tructive to game. The young begin to kill 

 for themselves very early. The first fall, after 

 they are born, they attack large game, and 

 from ignorance are bolder in making their 

 attacks than their parents ; but they are clumsy 

 and often let the prey escape. Like all cats, 

 cougars are comparatively easy to trap, much 

 more so than beasts of the dog kind, such as 

 the fox and wolf. 



They are silent animals ; but old hunters 

 say that at mating time the males call loudly, 

 while the females have a very distinct answer. 

 They are also sometimes noisy at other seasons. 

 I am not sure that I ever heard one ; but one 

 night, while camped in a heavily timbered 

 coulie near Kildeer Mountains, where, as their 

 footprints showed, the beasts were plentiful, 

 I twice heard a loud, wailing scream ring- 

 ing through the impenetrable gloom which 

 shrouded the hills around us. My companion, 

 an old plainsman, said that this was the cry 

 of the cougar prowling for its prey. Cer- 

 tainly no man could well listen to a stranger 

 and wilder sound. 



Ordinarily the rifleman is in no danger from 

 a hunted cougar ; the beast's one idea seems 



