Dec. 30, 1911.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
941 
tion where the nut was buried. One would 
sometimes climb the tree and take a position 
apparently similar to that from which he had 
started with the nut in the fall, then run to the 
ground, go directly to the spot where it had been 
placed, and digging through the snow, find his 
treasure, climb the tree and eat the nut. 
For the most part they make their winter nests 
in hollow trees and in boxes that we have pro¬ 
vided for them, but some make nests of leaves 
in the treetops. The young are born in the spring, 
late in March or early in April in this locality. 
They are brought forth in nests in cavities and 
in outside nests as well. The outside nests in 
which the young are born are of somewhat dif¬ 
ferent construction than those used merely as 
shelter for adult squirrels. When used merely 
for shelter the nest is often composed almost 
entirely of leaves, but when used as a nursery, 
it is more substantial. Coarse twigs are used as 
a foundation on which a liberal nest of leaves is 
made, lined with strips of bark. Such a nest is 
so constructed as to be waterproof, the entrance 
at the side. 
The number of young varies from one to five, 
according to my observation. Two is very fre¬ 
quently the number. Twice this season I have 
found nests with one only. The young are born 
naked and blind and it is some time before they 
become squirrel-like in appearance. The photo¬ 
graph showing two young ones in a man’s hand 
will give a fair idea of their appearance before 
the hair starts. The picture showing the same 
youngsters on a felt hat was taken two weeks 
later, showing the rapid change at this stage. 
While most specimens are a mixed gray and 
black above, with reddish yellow under parts, we 
see a few with pure white under parts. These 
are not common, however. I note descriptions 
of such variations with black under parts, but 
have never observed one here. 
Frank C. Pellett. 
Fierceness of the Mountain Lion. 
New York City, Nov. 25.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: As carnivorous animals—or any wild 
beasts that have in them the disposition to fight 
—grow scarcer, their dangerous qualities are 
magnified in the writings of the day. People 
who have never seen wild beasts of a certain 
sort write hair-raising accounts of battles with 
these animals, all of which are eagerly read by 
other people who themselves have never seen a 
specimen of the animal. As natural things— 
whether fishes, birds, beasts or men—grow more 
and more scarce, writers permit their imagina¬ 
tions to take wilder flights, and I am inclined to 
think that a hundred years hence the Indian, 
the grizzly bear, the mountain lion and the buf¬ 
falo will be credited with customs and habits 
that by no means belong to them. 
A kindly friend from the middle West has 
recently sent me a copy of an Arizona paper 
which has a half column story headed, “Trap¬ 
ped Lion Made Fierce Fight,’’ and tells of “a 
very narrow escape” had by two boys into whose 
small trap a panther had put his foot. 
Every man of experience knows that it is 
impossible to feel sure of what any particular 
wild animal will do. You may be quitte certain 
that the average panther or grizzly bear will 
act in a particular way, but you never can be 
positive that you will meet the average animal. 
I have had little or no experience with 
panthers, but have been intimate with a number 
of men who have killed a great many of them, 
usually driving them into trees with dogs, large 
or small. The testimony of such men is that 
the lion is by no means a fighter, and that when 
he fights he does it in slow and clumsy fashion. 
A friend who was following his dog and a lion, 
and had almost overtaken them, repeatedly saw 
YOUNG FOX SQUIRRELS, NAKED AND BLIND. 
THE SAME SQUIRRELS TWO WEEKS LATER. 
the dog seize the end of the lion s tail in his 
teeth and brace himself to hold the lion back. 
To rid himself of this drag the lion more than 
once turned about and struck the dog with his 
paws, but it turned very slowly and the dog was 
never in the slightest danger. 
Did not our old and more or less famous 
friend, Buffalo Jones, formerly climb trees in 
which mountain lions had taken refuge and put 
ropes over their heads? Mr. Roosevelt, I think, 
two or three times jumped into a fighting crowd 
of dogs and lion and killed the beast with a 
knife. Here is the story of the “very narrow 
escape” of these two boys: 
“The two young sons of Patricio Montijo and 
Rafael Reina had a narrow escape last Satur¬ 
day from being killed by a fierce mountain lion 
near their home two miles east of town. The 
boys caught the mountain lion rover in a small 
No. 2 trap, and his kingship walked off with the 
trap. The youngsters followed the tracks of 
their catch to a point where they discovered 
what kind of an animal they had landed. Get¬ 
ting scared, they hurried home, fearing to take 
a shot at the beast. 
Their fathers, Patricio Montijo and Rafael 
Reina, set out to see what scared the boys. They 
came across Mr. Lion when he was in a very 
bad humor, brought on by dragging a trap on 
his right hind leg, which had caught on over 
the toes. Sighting the hunters, his lordship did 
not wait for them to start the battle, but pro¬ 
ceeded to act on the aggressive at once by tak¬ 
ing a ten-foot leap at the throat of Reina, who 
side-stepped just in time to save his life. 
“As the men were armed with but one .38 
caliber revolver they soon realized that they 
were up against a serious proposition, with no 
possible means of escaping unless they killed the 
lion, now maddened beyond the hope of fright 
and slinking away. 
“As Reina dodged the fierce onslaught of the 
lion, he fired, the shot taking effect in the ani¬ 
mal's right shoulder. But Mr. Lion, wheeling 
around, came after his prey furiously. Another 
shot hit the oncoming lion in the neck, and just 
as he was about to make another leap for Reina 
a third shot struck him in the head, and he 
rolled over dead. 
“If the boys had not turned back they surely 
would have met with little mercy on the part 
of the lion. The hide was brought to town 
Tuesday and measures /pj feet from tip to tip. 
The animal weighed about 300 pounds and is 
the largest of its kind ever killed in this section 
of the territory.” 
We know little about the weight of most wild 
animals, but Mr. Roosevelt in 1901, hunting in 
a country where panthers were plenty, got four¬ 
teen. Of these the largest, which was very fat, 
measured eight feet in length and weighed 227 
pounds. The next largest measuring seven feet 
eight inches, weighed 164 pounds. These beasts 
were weighed with steelyards which are as near¬ 
ly exact as may be. 
This account I fancy depends for its interest 
chiefly on the fact that the newspaper writer has 
read tales about mountain lions and the dangers 
to be apprehended from them. Very likely for 
the foundation of this account there were a lion, 
two boys and a trap, and that the lion was killed, 
but I fancy the embroidery was worked out of 
the writer’s head. 
I saw the other day in a paper a story some¬ 
thing like this one. It was said that a woman 
was waiting by a moose trail along which her 
guides hoped to drive to her a bull moose. As 
she waited she happened to look up among the 
branches of a tree and saw there a lynx about 
to spring upon her. To save her life she fired. 
The lynx sprang and one of its claws cut through 
the sleeve of her coat and the sweater under it, 
but happily escaped her skin. 
What a great thing it would be for nature 
study if people could see things straight and 
tell Straight the things they see. Old Man. 
