XXIII 



THE COUGAR OR MOUNTAIN LION 



OUR puma or cougar is everywhere called the 

 mountain lion, and is the only member of the cat 

 family listed as big game by the Boone and Crockett 

 Club. 



This animal takes its popular name from its resem- 

 blance to the female African lion ; its technical name, 

 Felis co?tcolor, indicates, of course, that it is a cat of one 

 color. The color is tawny, but much lighter and 

 almost white underneath ; the tip of the tail is black. 

 Mr. Frank Mossman killed one of these great cats 

 (June, 1893), in Mason County, Washington, which, he 

 says, was ten and a half feet in length and which 

 weighed 200 pounds.* The average weight of this 

 animal is said to be not over seventy-five or eighty 

 pounds. The average length to the tip of the tail is a 

 little less than seven feet, the tail being usually about 

 thirty inches. 



The mountain lion is a flesh-cater, and is evidently 

 built to prey upon other animals. It kills elk, deer, 

 and antelopes as well as domestic animals, and, as we 



* The largest cougar killed by Roosevelt on his cougar hunt in Colorado 

 measured eight feet and weighed 227 pounds. He is of the opinion that 

 no cougar ever measures nine feet. Tf Mr. Mossman's tape and scales 

 were right, he certainly killed a big cat. Eleven of the fourteen cougars 

 killed by the Roosevelt f)arty weighed over 100 pounds each 



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