MAMMALS OF UTAH 109 



The cougar's size is, however, somewhat in dispute, 

 Roosevelt insisting in his "With the Cougar Hounds" that 

 rt never "comes anywhere near being nine feet in length." 

 This, I am sure, however, is untrue as I have myself meas- 

 ured a skin that went nine feet five inches tip to tip. In 

 response to an inquiry, Buffalo Jones, the noted cougar 

 hunter, wrote me that the largest mountain lion he "ever 

 saw measured ten feet four inches, from tip to tip, after 

 it was skinned." Phineas Bodily of Kaysville tells me that 

 he once killed a lion that measured nine feet six inches. 

 James G. Needham of Galesburg, Illinois, according to in- 

 formation furnished True, killed one that measured nine feet 

 one inch. The American Field, Vol. 24, 1885, p. 486, records 

 one that went ten feet, and Forest and Stream, Vol. 19, 1882, 

 p. 127, mentions one that measured eleven feet three inches ! 

 In Outdoor Life, Vol. XLII, No. 4, October, 1918, p. 243, 

 Addison M. Powell gives the following measurements of 

 different cougars he knows of: Nine feet 4 inches, 10 feet 

 6 inches. He adds : "I possibly could get one hundred names 

 of reliable men who have killed panthers — the Pacific Coast 

 variety, the skins of which measured more than nine feet 

 and many more than ten feet." 



The young mountain lion, pale rusty gray in color, is 

 covered with numerous distinct round blotches like those 

 of the leopard. The kittens, usually two in number, remain 

 with the mother until they are grown or have at least 

 learned to hunt. They are born at various times through- 

 out the year and do not open their eyes until the ninth or 

 tenth day. 



The lair is usually a shallow cavern on the face of 

 some inaccessible cliff or ledge but if there are no rocks 

 about, a bed of sticks, weeds, mosses, leaves, and grasses 

 is built in a dense thicket. 



Thomas Abbott, a Utah pioneer, tells me that in early 

 days in Utah he once saw three mountain lions chasing a 

 deer, one running at each side and the other at the rear. 

 Others inform me that they have seen them thus chasing 

 deer up a canyon. Usually, however, the cougar is a soli- 

 tary wanderer. Always shy, always alert, one may sneak 

 about for hours without being either seen or heard. 



It is said that the cougar is the only animal feared by 

 the grizzly bear ; yet a small dog when with a hunter can 

 usually chase a mountain lion up a tree. Even a female 

 cougar will desert her young after a brief encounter with 

 hounds. 



There are about a dozen authentic records of instances 

 where a cougar has killed a man, and many instances of 



