THE MOUNTAIN LION 199 



he will return to his kill to feast, or, if food is 

 scarce, gladly eat whatever he can obtain. 



From many observations I judge that after 

 eating he prefers to lie down for a few hours 

 in some sunny or secluded spot, or on a many- 

 branched limb generally well up toward the 

 top of the tree but sometimes not more than 

 ten feet above the earth. 



The lion has extreme curiosity. He will 

 follow travellers for hours if there is opportunity 

 to keep out of sight while doing so. Often dur- 

 ing long snowshoe trips I have returned over the 

 route first travelled. Lion tracks in the snow 

 showed that I was repeatedly followed for miles. 

 In a number of places, where I had taken a long 

 rest, the lion had crept up close, so that he could 

 easily watch me ; and on a few occasions he must 

 have been within a few feet of me. 



While walking through a forest in the Medi- 

 cine Bow Mountains I was startled and knocked 

 down by a glancing blow of a tree limb. This 

 limb had evidently broken off under the weight 

 of a lion. The lion also came tumbling down 

 but caught a claw on a limb and saved him- 

 self from striking the earth. Evidently in his 

 curiosity to see me he had leaned out too far 

 on a weak limb. He fled in confusion, perhaps 

 even more frightened than myself. 



The mountain lion is not ferocious. Mr. 



