THE COUGAR, 



BY W. A. PEUKY ( " SILLALICUM " ). 



animal lias the distinction of being called a 

 number of names. Like the African Lion, he is a 

 ferocious brute, almost similar to that animal in 

 color, and has the same trait of instantly killing 

 his prey. He was originally, and still is in some localities, 

 called the American Lion. Among the people in the West- 

 ern States it was formerly called the Panther, and by com- 

 mon custom this name degenerated into "Painter." In 

 New England it was sometimes called the Catamount. The 

 French in the early settlement of Louisiana called it Cougar, 

 and some of their naturalists, eager to make a little 

 notoriety, gave it the name of Carcajou, which really 

 belongs to the Glutton. Others called it by the outlandish, 

 unpronounceable name of Gouazoura, and if they could 

 have found a worse name they would doubtless have applied 

 it to this much-named creature. By the title of Puma, 

 given to it by the South Americans, and by the names of 

 California Lion and Mountain Lion, it is generally known in 

 the United States. 



This animal is similar in shape to the Mustela. its body 

 being long and slender, the legs short and stout. The head 

 is small when compared with the body, and is always 

 carried high. He is a rather proud chap, is our Cougar. 



His color is silvery fawn, sometimes approaching to red 

 on the upper part of the body, the tawny hairs of the upper 

 parts being whitish at the tips. The belly and inside of the 

 legs are almost white, the head black and gray irregularly 

 mixed. The female is colored like the male. The Cougar 

 varies in length from eight and one-half to eleven feet, from 

 point of nose to tip of tail. 



(405) 



