54 



WILD NEIGHBORS 



she sees the little one in a position of danger. 

 Out only at night, they are of all beasts the most 

 watchful, and most difficult to shoot ; and, though 

 their fearful call, in very close vicinity, has fre- 

 quently stampeded our horses, and startled some 

 of us from sleep, I have only been near enough to 

 shoot, and kill, one single specimen in all my wan- 

 derings." 



It does not appear, even here, however, that the 

 writer had any better evidence than his " startled 

 affright" in support of his assertion that the 

 "fiendish cry" came from a cougar. In view of 

 this uncertainty, some men go to the extreme of 

 denying that any puma does or ever did utter such 

 noises as have been described, saying that the 

 story is a composition of fox-howl, screech-owl- 

 hoot, imagination, and plain lying. This seems to 

 me going too far. There is no reason why this 

 animal should not caterwaul at times as well as its 

 humbler relative of the back fence ; and if we may 

 be deceived for a moment, as we sometimes are, 

 by Tom's or Julia's doleful wail, into thinking we 

 hear a child in mortal pain, so we need not scoff 

 unduly at those who hear in the naturally far 

 louder caterwauling of the bigger cat-of-the-moun- 

 tain, the agony of a man or woman under torture. 

 Pumas do not shriek loudly in confinement, but 

 they mew, whimper, and growl, like a house-cat, 

 " only more so." 



As winter approaches, the mountain lions de- 



