II THE FATHER OF GAME 53 
“Sometimes, when the hunter is stalking the 
deer in the deep recesses of the forest, he is star- 
tled by a fiendish cry, —a cry so unearthly and so 
weird that even the man of stoutest heart will 
start in affright ; a cry that can only be likened to 
a scream of demoniac laughter. This is the cry 
of the male panther. If it is answered by the 
female, the response will be similar to the wail of 
a child in terrible pain.” 
To this may be added the testimony of Mr. W. A. 
Baillie-Grohman, one of the sanest and most trust- 
worthy writers upon life in the Rocky Mountains, 
quoted from his excellent book ‘Camps in the 
Rockies”: 
“Other strange sounds fall on the ear as I pro- 
ceed with quickened step toward camp, sounds 
that you never hear in daytime, when, usually, 
oppressive stillness reigns in the great upland for- 
ests. The hoot of the owl is one of the most 
quaintly weird; but it is not like the unearthly 
wail of the puma, or mountain-lion, demoniacal 
and ghoulish as no other sound in the wide realm 
of nature. As it re-echoes through the forests 
you involuntarily shudder, for it is more like a 
woman’s long-drawn and piteous cry of terrible 
anguish than any other sound you could liken it 
to. Once heard, it will never be forgotten; and it 
can no more be compared to the jabber of the 
coyote or the howl of the hyena, than a baby’s cry 
of displeasure to its mother’s piercing shriek as 
