32 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 



pounds respectively; and three females, weighing, respec- 

 tively, 25, 21, and 1 8 pounds. Webb killed two, a male 

 of 29 pounds and a female of 20; and Stewart two females, 

 one of 22 pounds, and the other a young one of 1 1 pounds. 



I sent the cougar and bobcat skulls to Dr. Merriam, 

 at the Biological Survey, Department of Agriculture, 

 Washington. He wrote me as follows : " The big [cou- 

 gar] skull is certainly a giant. I have compared it with 

 the largest in our collection from British Columbia and 

 Wyoming, and find it larger than either. It is in fact 

 the largest skull of any member of the Felis concolor 

 group I have seen. A hasty preliminary examination in- 

 dicates that the animal is quite different from the north- 

 west coast form, but that it is the same as my horse-killer 

 from Wyoming Felis hippolestes. In typical Felis con- 

 color from Brazil the skull is lighter, the brain-case thin- 

 ner and more smoothly rounded, devoid of the strongly 

 developed sagittal crest; the under jaw straighter and 

 lighter. 



" Your series of skulls from Colorado is incomparably 

 the largest, most complete and most valuable series ever 

 brought together from any single locality, and will be of 

 inestimable value in determining the amount of indi- 

 vidual variation." 



We rode in to the Keystone Ranch late on the even- 

 ing of the second day after leaving Meeker. We had 

 picked up a couple of bobcats on the way, and had found 

 a cougar's kill (or bait, as Goff called it) a doe, almost 

 completely eaten. The dogs puzzled for several hours 



