The Cougar 153 



If cowboys come across a cougar in open 

 ground they invariably chase and try to rope 

 it as indeed they do with any wild animal. 

 I have known several instances of cougars 

 being roped in this way; in one the animal 

 was brought into camp alive by two strap- 

 ping cowpunchers. 



The cougar sometimes stalks its prey, and 

 sometimes lies in wait for it beside a game- 

 trail or drinking pool very rarely indeed 

 does it crouch on the limb of a tree. When 

 excited by the presence of game it is some- 

 times very bold. Willis once fired at some 

 big-horn sheep, on a steep mountain-side; he 

 missed, and immediately after his shot a 

 cougar made a dash into the midst of the 

 flying band, hoping to secure a victim. The 

 cougar roams over long distances, and often 

 changes its hunting ground, perhaps remain- 

 ing in one place two or three months, until 

 the game is exhausted, and then shifting to 

 another. When it does not lie in wait it 

 usually spends most of the night, winter and 

 summer, in prowling restlessly around the 

 places where it thinks it may come across 

 prey, and it will patiently follow an animal's 

 trail. There is no kind of game, save the 

 full-grown grisly and buffalo, which it does 



