The Portland daily press., 1898-06-25


will sometimes kill a lynx. He seizes his
prey by the throat, rarely by the
launches or flank, as is the VOLTS habit.
1t is his custom to STAY the smaller things
of his larder-young deer, sheep, pigs,
and SO forthwith single slap OF the
paw. The paw used is always the right.
There are no 1eft-pawed cougars. Inc
female has from one to three kittens at
litter, and the father will kill the young
males unless fought of. They are
brought forth almost always in caves,
though sometimes the lying-in occurs
under dead Jog in almost impossible
chaparral. A mother who has young to
care for becomes doubly destructive. The
young begin killing early, capturing
large game for themselves in the fall sue
oeeding birth, but they are clumsy and
foolishly bold. More of them are slain at
this age than at any other. Like ali
members of the cat tribe, they are easily
trapped.
individuals of the cougar species differ
greatly in size, streng til and ferocity,
MANI
of his clan. He was day feeder and did
not seem particularly to hide himself
His kills were made in the open valleys
and he was seen probably dozen times.
When interrupted in his work he would
retire at slow trot, carrying his head
six inches lower than his shoulders,
glancing back in anger and switching
his long tail violently from side to side
More than once he was followed for some
miles by unarmed cowboys anxious to
find his lair. In every instance when the
pursuit ceased he would turn in his
tracks and follow his pursuer back to
within mile of the ranch. He would
never return to a rcass after making
one meal He seems to have captured his
game by lurking along the brush-lined
edges of the hills and small precipices,
springing down upon the animals and
reaching them in couple of bounds,
covering sometimes twenty-five feet at
leap.
Invariably his victims were killed by
one mighty right-handed blow delivered
fairly between the ears or horns, crushing
in the skull as if it were an eggshelL
Always the shoulders showed where his
claws had given him foothold and the
signs told plainly that no animal ever had
the chance to travel more than ten feet
with him. He disposed of the largest
steers and mares without trouble, on one
occasion, made crazy by success, Staying
four beeves in a day. He was confirmed
cattle killer and it is believed that he had
not dined on sEything smaller than a
black-tailed deer in year. He was the
finest hunter. that ever walked on four
feet and when killed was, for this stage
of the heated season, remarkably fieshy.
Owing to his boldness and his habit of
following his trailers, the Mexicans of
the ranches became frightened of him.
They called him Gel Diablo Tordillo,"
or "the Gray Devil" and said that he
was not lion at all, but an evil spirit
All cougars, or panthers, are Mexican
lions" down here.
"Viejo' was not afraid of him. A
grizzled old hunter, whose body was
SCARED by twenty combats with man and
beast, and whose face, burned nearly to
jet blackness by the fierce suns, was so
marred by smallpox that peas might have
been placed in the pits of it, he said that
he and Alisan, the yellow dog, were a
match for anything in the mountains,
cinnamons not barred. He talked often
of what they would do to the Gray Devil
10 her, tho yaoly Ioko6 intn cham
The hunt began in the early morning.
There had been a rain the night before
and any scent promised to hold. The
trail was struck at the edge of a small
valley eight miles north of the Rincon.
The cougar had killed cow there just
after daylight, had eaten out her side,
and had strolled back up the hillside.
He had been gone not more than an hour
when the men reached the place, and the
dogs opened at once DANGEROUSLY. A
smart burst of speed followed. The Santa
Rosa Mountains are rough riding, but
the hunters were mounted on native
ponies which go up apparently impos-
slble inclines and jump off cliffs six feet
high on to rock lodges with the agile
surefootedness of the goat
The trail led over low range and
down into another valley where it turned
south for mile and q half to a branch of
the Sacramento, where the cougar had
slaked his thirst. He had crossed the
stream on felled tree and gone on into
the hills. A little after this he must
have heard the dogs because 500 yards
from the creek his trail changed from the
even footmarks of an unhurried quarry
first to the long shuff1ing trot of his kind
and then to bounds. Here the dogs left
the men. The country was such that
rapid riding was impossible. Only
"Viejo" spurred after the bowling pack,
which, with Alisan at it's head, poured in
yariegated torrent throug the hills.
In little while an increased clamor
was borne back to them. Pressing ON as
boldly as they dared they found the
huntsman in the midst of his frenzied
hounds at the edge of a small forest of
pecans which grew in a depression like
the bOtt0m of a howl Go dam uac If th at