204 A SPORTING PARADISE 



Scribners Magazine once contained the follow- 

 ing notes on the cougar : 



u Fables aside, the cougar is a very in- 

 teresting creature. It is found from the cold, 

 desolate plains of Patagonia to north of the 

 Canadian line, and lives alike among the snow- 

 clad peaks of the Andes and in the steaming 

 forests of the Amazon. Doubtless careful in- 

 vestigation will disclose .several varying forms 

 in an animal found over such immense tracts of 

 country and living under such utterly diverse 

 conditions. But in all its essential habits and 

 traits the big, slinking, nearly unicoloured cat 

 seems to be much the same everywhere, whether 

 living in the mountain, open plain, or forest, 

 under Arctic cold or tropic heat. When the settle- 

 ments become thick it retires to dense forests, 

 dark swamps, or inaccessible mountain gorge, 

 and moves about only at night. In wilder regions 

 it not unfrequently roams during the day and 

 ventures freely into the open. Deer are its 

 customary prey where they are plentiful, bucks, 

 does, and fawns being killed indifferently. Usually 

 the deer is killed almost instantly, but occasionally 

 there is quite a scuffle, in which the cougar may 

 get bruised, though, as far as I know, never 



