INTRODUCTION 7 



animals, or their book names, which are better in themselves, 

 but which unfortunately have not been popularly adopted. 

 The elk, for instance, has no resemblance to the animal prop- 

 erly called the elk in the Old World, which is the blood 

 brother of the moose, nor yet to the other animals improperly 

 called elk in Asia and Africa. The blacktail of the Rocky 

 Mountains is not the true blacktail of the Pacific coast. The 

 antelope is not an antelope at all, occupying an entirely unique 

 position as the only hollow-horned ruminant which annually 

 sheds its horns. It would be far better if the three could be 

 known as wapiti, mule-deer and prong-buck. But unfortu- 

 nately they are rarely known by these titles in common speech. 

 With the cougar the case is a little different. It is sometimes 

 called cougar among the ranchmen, and the names of panther 

 and mountain lion, by which it is known respectively in the 

 East and in the West, are so misleading that it is best to drop 

 them and give it the proper title. 



The elk, or wapiti, were still plentiful in northwestern Col- 

 orado a decade ago, going in large herds. The merciless per- 

 secution they have suffered for the sake of their flesh, hide, 

 antlers and teeth has resulted in the species being reduced to a 

 few hundred individuals. The Wyoming elk are travelling 

 the same path, although the existence of the great protected 

 nursery and breeding-ground in the Yellowstone National Park 

 has delayed the process and gives us reasonable hope that the 

 animals will never become entirely extinct. The part played 

 by true sportsmen, worthy of the name, in this extinction has 



