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THE OREGON SPORTSMAN 



they, unnoticed, rob many birds' nests. The cat is more danger- 

 ous to birds than any native mammal that roams our woods, 

 for it is nocturnal, a splendid climber, a good stalker, a strong 

 leaper, and is very quick and active. 



Unfortunately, the cat is only half domesticated and easily 

 goes back to a wild state. If the dog loses its master it will 

 soon find another, but the mature cat is more likely to run wild. 

 Thousands of these wild or half-wild cats roam the country des- 

 troying game birds, squirrels, field mice, chickens and any 

 animal they can master. The effect produced by cats is con- 

 vincingly shown where they have been introduced on islands 

 and have nearly exterminated rabbits, and greatly decreased the 

 number of birds. 



John Burroughs says that cats probably destroy more birds 

 than all other animals combined. William Dutcher, president of 

 the National Association of Audubon Societies, considers the 

 wild house cat one of the greatest causes of bird destruction 

 known. He says that the boy with the air gun is not in the 

 same class with the cat. 



COUGAR IN COOS COUNTY. 



Mr. J. C. Warner, who lives on the south fork of Coquille River in 

 Coos county, reports good cougar hunting in this locality during the past 

 few months. Some time ago while he was out looking up some cattle, he 

 discovered the carcass of a freshly killed deer. He returned home, got his 

 dogs and turned them loose where the deer had been killed. The dogs had 

 difficulty, as the trails were cold. In a radius of less than a mile, Mr. 

 Warner says he discovered the carcasses of nine deer, none of which he 

 thinks had been killed more than ten or fifteen days. In making a larger 

 circle about the locality, his dogs struck the fresh trail of a panther and in 

 twenty minutes the animal was treed in a maple. While skinning this cat, 

 his dogs were hunting around and in a short time they were barking up 

 another tree. To his surprise, Mr. Warner found his dogs had chased two 

 more cougars up one tree. Shortly his dogs were ranging out again and had 

 a fourth panther treed. The first was a large female measuring eight feet 

 nine inches; the other three were yearlings. 



Later in the winter Mr. Warner succeeded in killing a fifth panther 

 measuring eight feet. He found where this big cat had killed three deer. 



Pag-e three 



