on 



WITH THE COUGAR HOUNDS 23 



on a ranch, came to visit me, with a little son five or six 

 years old. This boy when younger, but two or three years 

 old, if I recollect rightly, had been attacked by a pan- 

 ther. He was playing in the yard by the house when 

 a lean two-thirds grown panther came into the yard and 

 seized the child by the throat. The child screamed, and 

 alarmed the mother (who told me the story) . She seized 

 a broom and rushed out, while an old man at the house 

 seized the gun. The panther let go the child and was 

 shot. I saw the boy. He had the scars of the panther's 

 teeth in the cheek, and below on the under side of the 

 lower jaw, and just at the throat. This was the only case 

 that came to my knowledge at first hand of a panther at- 

 tacking a human being in that State, except one or two 

 cases where panthers, exasperated by wounds, had fought 

 with the hunters who had wounded them." This was a 

 young cougar, bold, stupid, and very hungry. Goff told 

 me of one similar case where a cougar stalked a young 

 girl, but was shot just before it was close enough to make 

 the final rush. As I have elsewhere related, I know of 

 two undoubted cases, one in Mississippi, one in Florida, 

 where a negro was attacked and killed by a cougar, while 

 alone in a swamp at night. But these occurred many 

 years ago. The instance related by Professor Brewer is 

 the only one I have come across happening in recent 

 years, in which the cougar actually seized a human being 

 with the purpose of making prey of it; though doubtless 

 others have occurred. I have never known the American 

 wolf actually to attack a human being from hunger or 

 to make prey of him; whereas the Old- World wolf, like 



