322 THE CAT FAMILY 



almost at our feet, and this time Baldy could not find 

 it, or else could not get at it." 



Both bob-cats and cougars are decreasing. As ani- 

 mals for a game preserve, it may be said, they would 

 not do at all in small deer parks or pheasant *' shoots," 

 but on large shooting estates, I am satisfied, they would 

 do no harm, or might even prove to be a benefit. Had 

 there been cougars in the Pennsylvania parks, where 

 the deer became too numerous for the food supply, 

 they might have been kept down by these cats, which, 

 no doubt, would have given the deer considerable exer- 

 cise and the owners of the preserves would have had 

 good cougar hunting. There is such a thing as both 

 birds and beasts becoming too numerous for theii 

 health on the game preserve. A few cougars and bob- 

 cats would help regulate this matter. There seems 

 here as elsewhere in the fields and woods to be a re- 

 quirement for that "balance of nature" which is so 

 much talked about nowadays.* 



* A New York sportsman who owns an insular game preserve near the 

 Georgia coast, recently informed me that he had fine cat-hunting — following 

 the hounds on horseback and shooting the cats from the trees. They de- 

 stroy many of his partridges. 



