194 WATCHED BY WILD ANIMALS 
tracks at every season of the year, I assume the 
young may be born at any time. 
The mountain lion is a big-whiskered cat and 
has many of the traits possessed by the average 
cat. He weighs about one hundred and fifty 
pounds and is from seven to eight feet long, 
including a three-foot tail. He is thin and 
flat-sided and tawny in colour. He varies 
from brownish red to grayish brown. He has 
sharp, strong claws. 
Mr. Roosevelt once offered one thousand 
dollars for a mountain lion skin that would meas- 
ure ten feet from tip to tip. The money was 
never claimed. Apparently, however, in the 
state of Washington a hunter did succeed in 
capturing an old lion that weighed nearly two 
hundred pounds and measured ten and a half 
feet from tip to tip. But most lions approxi- 
mate only one hundred pounds and measure 
possibly eight feet from tip to tip. 
The lion eats almost anything. I have seen 
him catching mice and grasshoppers. On one 
occasion I was lying behind a clump of willows 
upon a beaver dam. Across the pond was an 
open grassy space. Out into this presently 
walked a mountain lion. For at least half an 
hour he amused or satisfied himself by chasing, 
capturing, and eating grasshoppers. He then 
laid down for a few minutes in the sunshine; 
