306 
COUGAR. 
We have seen several specimens differing from the above in various 
shades of colour. These accidental variations, however, are not sufficient 
to warrant us in regarding these individuals as distinct species. 
The young are beautifully spotted and barred with blackish-brown, and 
their hair is soft and downy. 
DIMKNSIONS. 
Male, shot by J. W. Audubon, at Castroville, Texas 28th January, 1846. 
... , 
From point of nose to root of tail 
- 
Feet. 
5 
Inches 
1 
Tail 
- 
3 
1 
Height of ear posteriorly 
- 
3 
Length of canine teeth, from gums 
- 
- 
1? 
Female, killed 26th January, 1846. 
Length of head and body 
- 
4 
11 
“ Tail - - - : 
- 
2 
8 
“ Height of ear 
- 
- 
3 
“ of canine teeth 
- 
- 
Weight, 149 lbs. 
HABITS. 
The Cougar is known all over the United 
States by 
the 
name of the 
panther or painter, and is another example of that ignorance or want 
of imagination, which was manifested by the “ Colonists,” who named 
nearly every quadruped, bird, and fish, which they found on our continent, 
after species belonging to the Old World, without regard to more than a 
most slight resemblance, and generally with a total disregard of propriety. 
This character of the “ Colonists,” is, we are sorry to say, kept up to a 
great extent by their descendants, to the present day, who in designating 
towns and villages throughout the land, have seized upon the names of 
Rome, Carthage, Palmyra, Cairo, Athens, Sparta, Troy, Babylon, Jericho, 
and many other ancient cities, as well as those of Boston, Portsmouth, 
Plymouth, Bristol, Paris, Manchester, Berlin, Geneva, Portland, &c., &c., 
from which probably some of the founders of our country towns may have 
emigrated. We sincerely hope this system of nomenclature will hence- 
forth be discarded ; and now let us go back to the Cougar, which is but lit- 
tle more like the true panther than an opossum is like the kangaroo ! 
Before, however, entirely quitting this subject, we may mention that for a 
long time the Cougar was thought to be the lion ; the supposition was 
that all the skins of the animal that were brought into the settlements 
by the Indians were skins of females ; and the lioness, having something 
