110 



CALIFORNIA FISH AND GAME. 



Range Mountains. All the country above or below this belt can be 

 eliminated as lion country for all practical hunting purposes. 



The lion does not habitually follow some of the deer to the higher 

 mountains in summer and other deer to the foothills in winter, as many 

 people suppose. This lion belt is so well defined in the Sierra that w^e 

 can draw a straight line through the center of the belt, from a point 

 in Siskiyou County to a i)oint in Kern County, and it would be pos- 

 sible for a hunter to camp along this line and kill approximately every 

 lion on the western slope of the Sierra. Of course a lion will occa- 

 sionally stray out of this belt temporarily, but he soon returns, for his 

 natural home is there. The lion probably selects this belt because it is 

 the natural home of the deer. The variety of ceanothus, commonly 



Fig. 



52. A large 160-pound male lion which measured 7 feet 3J inches. Killed near 

 Avery, Calaveras County, in Marcli, 1921. Photograph by L. V. Peterson. 



called deer brush, which is the principal food for deer, grows in abun- 

 dance in this belt between 3000 and 5000 feet elevation. The deer that 

 summer higher winter here, and those that winter below summer here. 

 Most of the deer stay here all the year, so this area is the best all-year 

 range for them. In other words, the maximum deer population is to 

 be found in this area. For this reason the lioness selects some place 

 in this belt when her young are to be born. She usually has two or 

 three kittens, although sometimes only one, and occasionally four, are 

 born in a litter. On account of many females not mating every year, 

 the yearly increase i)robably averages one kitten for each adult female. 

 The lair is u.sually located around some bluff or pile of rocks, which 

 furnishes places for .shelter and concealment of tlie kittens when small. 

 Jn my experience, the kittens are born in eithei' February, April, 

 August or November. The mother nurses them for about two months, 

 and probably brings them some food in her stomach during that time. 



