202 WATCHED BY WILD ANIMALS 
Or other objects, and that he frequently follows 
people for hours through the woods without their 
ever seeing him—and,I suppose, too, the very fact 
that he is so rarely seen—make him a sort of storm 
centre, as it were, for blood-curdling stories. 
Through years I investigated plausible ac- 
counts of the ferocity of mountain lions. These 
investigations brought little information, but 
they did disclose the fact that there are a few 
types of lion tales which are told over and over 
again, with slight local variations. These tales 
commonly are without the slightest basis of 
fact. They are usually revamped by a clever 
writer, a frightened hunter, or an interesting 
story teller, as occasions offer. One of the com- 
monest of the oft-told tales that have come to 
me through the years is as follows: 
“Late Saturday evening, while Mr. and Mrs. 
Simpson were returning from the village through 
the woods, they were attacked by a half-starved 
mountain lion. The lion leaped out upon them 
from brush by the roadside and attempted to 
seize Mr. Simpson. Though an old man, he 
put up a fight, and at last beat off the lion with 
the butt of the buggy whip.” 
Sometimes this is a family and the time of 
day is early morning. Sometimes the lion is 
ferocious instead of half-starved. Sometimes 
it is of enormous size. Once in a while he leaps 
