THE STORY OF THE 



MOUNTAIN LION. 



Many a young hunter in the Rocky Mountains has been startled out of a 

 sound sleep by a wild, unearthly cry unlike any other sound of the forest. 



"What's that?" he would ask, listening to catch a repetition of the .sound. 



"Go to sleep,"' replies the old hunter, who is his companion ; "that's only a 

 painter, — what most people call a mountain lion. They won't bother us ; go 

 to sleep." 



The mountain lion is the largest representative of the cat family in Amer- 

 ica. It is often called the panther, a word the old-time hunters corrupted into 

 painter. Some works on natural history give it the name of cougar, but I 

 prefer the name given it by the Peruvians — Puma, which has been adopted by 

 all American zoologists. 



In regard to the dimensions of the puma, it is stated that a male preserved 

 in the museum at Washington has a total length (measured along the curves 

 of the body) oi 6 feet 7| inches, of which 2 feet 2I inches are occupied by the 

 tail. A large male killed in Arizona measured 7 feet in total length, of which 

 3 feet was occupied by the tail ; while a smaller male from the same locality 

 had a total length of only 6 feet, of which the tail took up i foot 1 1 inches. 

 The largest individual of which the measurements can be regarded as authen- 



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