240 
JOURNAL OF MAMMALOGY 
the burrows were shallow, but one was found to extend for a distance of 
five feet into the perpendicular face of a hard sand hill. This burrow 
was about an inch in diameter and inclined slightly upward from the 
entrance. At the terminus of the burrow was a small, flat nest of dead 
grasses and a little pile of shelled pods of a wild pea {Galactia sp.). 
Another burrow was about three feet long and contained a similar nest 
and pile of pea pods. 
GENERAL NOTES 
ATTACKED BY A COUGAR? 
In February last, during a short expedition in Venezuela, I had an interesting 
encounter with a cougar which seems worth relating as a possible addition to the 
rather scanty evidence that this animal does not always flee from man. The 
incident occurred in the foothills of the Sierra de Perija near the Rio Cogollo, 
some eighty miles southwest of the city of Maracaibo. This locality is on the 
frontier of the region held by the hostile Motilone Indians and therefore little 
frequented and practically in virgin condition. 
At about ten o’clock one morning, after visiting a short line of traps and 
spending several hours hunting for deer, I started to backtrack toward camp, 
following in general the same fairly marked deer trails over which I had just 
passed. Although the forest was rather thin, passage was impeded by light but 
much entwined underbrush except on these trails or in occasional small grassy 
openings suggestive of the extensive savannas lying a few miles eastward. At 
a turn in the trail and on the crest of a wooded knoll, when I was halfway to 
camp, feeling the heat of the powerful sun, passing a spot previously reconnoi- 
tered carefully for deer, and hence not so alert as before, I was suddenly con- 
fronted by what to my astonished eyes seemed the largest cougar that ever 
grew. It started from behind some low bushes at my left and fifty feet, or at 
most sixty feet, in front of me. I did not see it rise, but it gave the impression 
of having been lying down. The forest was rather scraggly at this point and 
the trail I was following was dissolved in several small openings, in one of which 
the animal appeared, so the sensation of meeting it directly in the trail was lost. 
It started toward me immediately, growling savagely, its eyes blazing, tail 
lashing, and if there was any indication that it did not intend to make away 
with me, I failed to recognize it. It did not come on the run, however, and 
whether it would have done so or not I cannot say, for its long feline strides 
were so full of determination I did not care to await developments but promptly 
fired a load of buckshot full into its face. It dropped instantly and rolled behind 
some small bushes which prevented me from firing the second barrel. I had a 
flash of elation, but the glowering visage was still uppermost in my mind; so, 
instead of running in with my other barrel, I prudently stopped to reload the 
one already fired and while the gun was open the cougar rose and disappeared 
in a dense thicket leaving scattered drops of blood and a trail which I could not 
follow far without dogs. Failure to kill the beast of course caused considerable 
chagrin, but the unique experience was some consolation. 
