NORTH AMERICA AND THE WEST INDIES 249 



Bailey (1931) refers to this race a large specimen in the collec- 

 tion of the U. S. Biological Survey from the Jemez Mountains 

 of northern New Mexico and believes that other dark-brown 

 skins from Taos and Pecos River Mountains of that region are 

 the same. In the latter district they were "common" in 1903, 

 and a few were killed every year in the Taos Mountains. "In 

 1910 officials of the Forest Service reported mountain lions as 

 fairly abundant on the Carson National Forest and as still very 

 common in the Jemez Mountains. In 1914 they reported 3 

 killed on the Carson, 3 on the Pecos, and 2 in the Jemez Na- 

 tional Forest; in 1915, 4 on the Carson and 4 on the Santa Fe 

 National Forests; and in 1916, 4 on the Carson and 7 on the 

 Santa Fe National Forests." These large cougars could and 

 did kill even elk, as well as deer, but as these and "other native 

 game animals become scarce, the mountain lions turn their at- 

 tention to domestic stock and seem especially to relish colts, 

 but if these are not to be found, they take horse meat of any 

 kind. In spite of the bounty usually paid for their destruction 

 and the efforts of stockmen and hunters, they have until re- 

 cently held their own in the rougher parts of the country, but 

 with the present organized effort it will not be long before they 

 are sufficiently reduced in numbers to prevent any great 

 losses" (Bailey, 1931). 



In Colorado the range of this race, which formerly inhabited 

 all the "rough parts of the State, and in early times" was oc- 

 casionally seen "even well out on the plains along the more 

 heavily brush-fringed streams," has now become much more 

 circumscribed. In 1911 Cary wrote that it was already rare 

 east of the Continental Divide, though holding its own fairly 

 well in the rough canyon and mesa country of the western and 

 southwestern parts of the State, where locally the animals 

 were still sufficiently numerous to be very destructive to stock, 

 especially young colts. Cary (1911) lists eight regions in the 

 northern mountains of Colorado in all but one of which they 

 were said to be from uncommon to "common"; in the Snake 

 River region where formerly they were common, none remain. 

 Reports from southern Colorado for ten regions where they are 

 found indicate that they are much less numerous, though a few 

 still occur. They may be found locally up as high as 10,000 

 feet in some of the mountain ranges. At least until recent 

 years the cougar was of local occurrence in the mountainous 



