194 WATCHED BY WILD ANIMALS 



tracks at every season of the year, I assume the 

 young may be born at any time. 



The mountain lion is a big-whiskered cat and 

 has many of the traits possessed by the average 

 cat. He weighs about one hundred and fifty 

 pounds and is from seven to eight feet long, 

 including a three-foot tail. He is thin and 

 flat-sided and tawny in colour. He varies 

 from brownish red to grayish brown. He has 

 sharp, strong claws. 



Mr. Roosevelt once offered one thousand 

 dollars for a mountain lion skin that would meas- 

 ure ten feet from tip to tip. The money was 

 never claimed. Apparently, however, in the 

 state of Washington a hunter did succeed in 

 capturing an old lion that weighed nearly two 

 hundred pounds and measured ten and a half 

 feet from tip to tip. But most lions approxi- 

 mate only one hundred pounds and measure 

 possibly eight feet from tip to tip. 



The lion eats almost anything. I have seen 

 him catching mice and grasshoppers. On one 

 occasion I was lying behind a clump of willows 

 upon a beaver dam. Across the pond was an 

 open grassy space. Out into this presently 

 walked a mountain lion. For at least half an 

 hour he amused or satisfied himself by chasing, 

 capturing, and eating grasshoppers. He then 

 laid down for a few minutes in the sunshine; 



