252 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



2,000 and 5,000 feet. Young seem to be born in almost any 

 month of the year, but with a peak in April. The usual number 

 seems to be two young to a litter in California. The chief 

 prey is deer, on the increase of which it forms a natural check. 

 Some valuable data on the abundance and feeding habits of 

 cougars, based on much field experience, give perhaps for the 

 first time a fairly accurate picture of the economic status of 

 mountain lions, at least in California. In good lion and deer 

 country there is on an average about one lion to a township 

 (36 square miles), and in a few very favored localities about one 

 to each 10 square miles. Where deer are most plentiful, as in 

 national parks and game reserves, there also the mountain 

 lions tend to be most concentrated. A careful study indicates 

 that at the time of writing, according to the authors quoted, 

 the mountain-lion population of California was about 600 and 

 that the annual toll of these animals upon the deer was roughly 

 21,600. Yet in spite of this, and of a nearly equal number an- 

 nually taken by hunters in the State, deer are actually increas- 

 ing. From 1908 to 1921 the annual kill of mountain lions 

 averaged 258, and the State even employs a professional hunter 

 for their reduction. Yet it seems that the species is about 

 holding its numbers in spite of this toll and a natural mortality. 

 In regard to stock-killing propensities, it appears that usually 

 those lions that have learned by experience that this sort of 

 prey is easily secured are the main ones to be feared, and with 

 their elimination in grazing areas the trouble is much abated. 

 The present prospect for the California mountain lion is that 

 although inevitably it must retreat before the spread of settle- 

 ment and agriculture, nevertheless in wilder areas it will per- 

 sist for many years to come and continue to be a source of 

 slight revenue for hunters and perhaps in places a real asset in 

 the natural control of deer populations in protected areas. Its 

 situation is perhaps more favorable than is that of the other 

 three races of the West, the Rocky Mountain, the Vancouver, 

 and the Oregon cougars. 



THE JAGUARS 



In a recent paper Nelson and Goldman (1933) have re- 

 viewed the systematic relationships of the local races of jaguars 

 in America. These, the largest of American cats, constitute 

 but a single species, which inhabits the tropical and subtropical 



