Sept. 8, 1906.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
373 
we dropped down in the shade of an especially 
large tree whose top quite overarched all the 
surrounding forest and took a good breathing 
spell. As we sat there I thought I saw a movement 
along the crest of the rocky ridge. Motioning 
to the boy to keep still, I made my way to 
the shelter of another tree, which gave me a 
bit better command of the ridge, and there, 
just behind a large and irregular boulder, lay 
an ocelot enjoying the cool shade of the rock. 
He lay flat on his belly, like any cat, his head 
stretched out on the rock, his paws sprawled 
apart, his flank turned toward me, possibly 
asleep. 
For a moment I watched him, then the hunter 
asserted itself, the little rifle came to my 
shoulder, the bead rested just for a second over 
one of the black ocelli behind his foreleg, there 
was a sharp crack, and the spotted body rose 
straight up in the air, fell to the rock on all 
fours and crumpled down as if struck by a thun¬ 
derbolt. I started forward on a run, when, out 
of the corner of my eye, so to speak, I saw an¬ 
other spotted form slipping toward the tree 
Still-hunting is about the only way for the 
ambitious sportsman to get one of these cats, 
and even then he will not get an ocelot to every 
five hunts, unless he goes into very new coun¬ 
try, a thing by no means so hard to find in 
Western Mexico as many seem to believe. Pos¬ 
sibly these cats could be baited, as tigers and 
lions and leopards are baited in Africa and in 
Asia, but that seems a rather small game to play 
on such little hunters as are these, and the prac¬ 
ticed still-hunter will find the keenest sport in 
following these cats on foot, alone or with a 
guide, through what is practically virgin forest 
in. the South Mexican and Central American 
States. 
During my stay in the South I was unable to 
learn as much as I should have liked concern¬ 
ing the life histories of these ocelots, and I have 
since been able to find practically nothing of 
value about them in the best and most up-to-date 
natural histories. So far as I could find threads 
of knowledge from the younger Mexicans, I 
judge that each pair has but two young in a sea¬ 
son, but that these cubs are indifferently a pair, 
Ruins of the Southwest Protected. 
The preservation of natural things has always 
appeared to Forest and Stream one of the most 
important matters with which it has to deal. 
Closely allied to this preservation of natural 
things is the caring for and marking of historic 
or prehistoric objects, ruins or monuments. 
1 lie Americans are fond of calling themselves 
—with some pride—a practical people, which 
too often means that they care for nothing ex¬ 
cept the dollars and the cents. But there is a 
leaven in this country—and a constantly increas¬ 
ing one—which believes more and more in the 
keeping intact the natural things and the old 
things which we possess. How rapidly this 
feeling is growing is shown by what has been 
accomplished in the United States within the last 
few years in game and wild bird preservation 
and in forest protection. Most States—many 
even of the never States—have historical so¬ 
cieties, whose objects are the perpetuation of the 
deeds of the pioneers, and the preservation of 
the monuments left by them. 
RUINS OF THE JEMEZ PLATEAU, NEW MEXICO. 
tangle. A sudden snapshot broke one foreleg 
and a second and third shot finished the first 
cat’s mate. 
But such ocelot hunting as this is mere 
chance; not one time in a hundred does a man 
come on these cats so openly. Probably my ex¬ 
treme good luck was due to the fact that this 
part of Mexico is hunted very little, and that 
the natives are extraordinarily indifferent hunt¬ 
ers. At other times I tramped all day, doing 
nothing but looking for the spotted cats, and 
got not even the sight of one to repay me for 
my work. 
Since then I have been asked why I did not 
use dogs. In the first place, I had none; in the 
second, I could get none suitable thereabouts, 
for the animals belonging to the natives are as 
absolutely worthless as dogs could well be; and, 
in the third place, I do not think that ocelots 
can be successfully hunted with hounds, no 
matter how well trained the latter may be. 
As long as the ocelots run on the ground the 
dogs can follow them, but as soon as the cat 
takes to a tree, which he is going to do almost 
immediately, the dogs will stop and begin bark¬ 
ing “treed” while the cat goes merrily on 
through the treetops, and, by the time the hunter 
comes up to his dog, is lost in a thousand miles 
of forest. 
or both of the same sex. They are said to make 
the most delightful pets if taken young and well 
broken to house rules; indeed, it was reported 
to me that on some of the large haciendas, a 
pair of ocelots were kept like dogs about the 
place, and that every one played with them. In 
appearance they are most amiable, even when 
engaged in the chase, but stories I had read 
when a boy of the Incas and the Tzins and how 
they used these same ocelots to hunt their game, 
as the rulers of India were wont to use cheetahs, 
flashed through my mind, and, somehow, I 
slightly doubted the story. 
Shooting at Pinehurst. 
Persons who propose to spend the winter or 
part of it in Pinehurst, N. C., will be interested 
to learn that the shooting there is reported to 
be improving every year. The birds are protec¬ 
ted and increase naturally, and besides that about 
100 dozen have been put out every year. This 
year the management of Pinehurst is breeding 
quail in captivity, and up to the present time has 
been very successful. About 100 pairs of birds 
are breeding and each pair occupies a separate 
inclosure. 
Happily the national Government has at last 
taken up this matter, and none too soon, Away 
off in the southwest, on the arid table lands of 
New Mexico and Arizona, still exist the stone 
dwellings and other works of a people which 
have largely passed away, though some of their 
descendants still inhabit the region, settled many 
centuries ago by their forefathers. These works, 
so much more permanent than many other relics 
left by the North American Indians, have long 
been a prey to whoever might wish to tear them 
down and carry away their contents. They 
have been visited by many careful students of 
antiquity, who, with painstaking care have un¬ 
earthed their rare treasures of the past, and 
carried them away to be described at length and 
then to be deposited on the shelves of museums. 
But they have also been visited by vandals, who 
with pick, bar and shovel have torn down dwell¬ 
ings of the greatest interest, and have loaded 
wagons with priceless treasures which they have 
taken away and sold to railroad tourists and col¬ 
lectors of curiosities. 
From time to time during the past few years 
efforts have been made to interest Congress in 
a bill which should make such depredations un¬ 
lawful, and happily such a bill was passed by 
Congress this summer, which gives at least a 
nominal protection to these relics of the past. 
