The Cougar. 343 



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. It is said 

 that the old he's kill the small male kittens when they get 

 a chance. They certainly 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 

 destructive to game. The young begin to kill for them- 

 selves 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 

 ringing 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. Certainly 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 to be flight, and even 



