by Mayne Reid
CHAPTER SEVEN.
THE COUGAR.
The cougar (_Felis concolor_) is the only indigenous long-tailed cat inAmerica north of the parallel of 30 degrees. The "wild cats" so called,are lynxes with short tails; and of these there are three distinctspecies. But there is only one true representative of the genus Felis,and that is the animal in question.
This has received many trivial appellations. Among Anglo-Americanhunters, it is called the panther--in their _patois_, "painter." Inmost parts of South America, as well as in Mexico, it receives thegrandiloquent title of "lion" (_leon_), and in the Peruvian countries iscalled the "puma," or "poma." The absence of stripes, such as those ofthe tiger--or spots, as upon the leopard--or rosettes, as upon thejaguar, have suggested the name of the naturalists, _concolor_._Discolor_ was formerly in use; but the other has been generallyadopted.
There are few wild animals so regular in their colour as the cougar:very little variety has been observed among different specimens. Somenaturalists speak of spotted cougars--that is, having spots that may beseen in a certain light. Upon young cubs, such markings do appear; butthey are no longer visible on the full-grown animal. The cougar ofmature age is of a tawny red colour, almost uniform over the whole body,though somewhat paler about the face and the parts underneath. Thiscolour is not exactly the tawny of the lion; it is more of a reddishhue--nearer to what is termed calf-colour.
The cougar is far from being a well-shaped creature: it appearsdisproportioned. Its back is long and hollow; and its tail does nottaper so gracefully as in some other animals of the cat kind. Its legsare short and stout; and although far from clumsy in appearance, it doesnot possess the graceful _tournure_ of body so characteristic of some ofits congeners. Though considered the representative of the lion in theNew World, its resemblance to the royal beast is but slight; its colourseems to be the only title it has to such an honour. For the rest, itis much more akin to the tigers, jaguars, and true panthers. Cougarsare rarely more than six feet in length, including the tail, which isusually about a third of that measurement.
The range of the animal is very extensive. It is known from Paraguay tothe Great Lakes of North America. In no part of either continent is itto be seen every day, because it is for the most part not only nocturnalin its activity, but one of those fierce creatures that, fortunately, donot exist in large numbers. Like others of the genus, it is solitary inits habits, and at the approach of civilisation betakes itself to theremoter parts of the forest. Hence the cougar, although found in all ofthe United States, is a rare animal everywhere, and seen only at longintervals in the mountain-valleys, or in other difficult places of theforest. The appearance of a cougar is sufficient to throw anyneighbourhood into an excitement similar to that which would be producedby the chase of a mad dog.
It is a splendid tree-climber. It can mount a tree with the agility ofa cat; and although so large an animal, it climbs by means of itsclaws--not by hugging, after the manner of the bears and opossums.While climbing a tree, its claws can be heard crackling along the barkas it mounts upward. It sometimes lies "squatted" along a horizontalbranch, a lower one, for the purpose of springing upon deer, or suchother animals as it wishes to prey upon. The ledge of a cliff is also afavourite haunt, and such are known among the hunters as"panther-ledges." It selects such a position in the neighbourhood ofsome watering-place, or, if possible, one of the salt or soda springs(licks) so numerous in America. Here it is more certain that its vigilwill not be a protracted one. Its prey--elk, deer, antelope, orbuffalo--soon appears beneath, unconscious of the dangerous enemy thatcowers over them. When fairly within reach, the cougar springs, andpouncing down upon the shoulders of the victim, buries its claws in theflesh. The terrified animal starts forward, leaps from side to side,dashes into the papaw thickets, or breasts the dense cane-brake, inhopes of brushing off its relentless rider. All in vain! Closelyclasping its neck, the cougar clings on, tearing its victim in thethroat, and drinking its blood throughout the wild gallop. Faint andfeeble, the ruminant at length totters and falls, and the fiercedestroyer squats itself along the body, and finishes its red repast. Ifthe cougar can overcome several animals at a time, it will kill themall, although but the twentieth part may be required to satiate itshunger. Unlike the lion in this, even in repletion it will kill. Withit, destruction of life seems to be an instinct.
There is a very small animal, and apparently a very helpless one, withwhich the cougar occasionally quarrels, but often with ill success--thisis the Canada porcupine. Whether the cougar ever succeeds in killingone of these creatures is not known, but that it attacks them is beyondquestion, and its own death is often the result. The quills of theCanada porcupine are slightly barbed at their extremities; and whenstuck into the flesh of a living animal, this arrangement causes them topenetrate mechanically deeper and deeper as the animal moves. That theporcupine can itself discharge them to some distance, is not true, butit is true that it can cause them to be easily _detached_; and this itdoes when rashly seized by any of the predatory animals. The result is,that these remarkable spines become fast in the tongue, jaws, and lipsof the cougar, or any other creature which may make an attack on thatseemingly unprotected little animal. The fisher (_Mustela Canadensis_)is said to be the only animal that can kill the porcupine with impunity.It fights the latter by first throwing it upon its back, and thenspringing upon its upturned belly, where the spines are almost entirelywanting.
The cougar is called a cowardly animal: some naturalists even assertthat it will not venture to attack man. This is, to say the least, asingular declaration, after the numerous well-attested instances inwhich men have been attacked, and even killed by cougars. There aremany such in the history of early settlement in America. To say thatcougars are cowardly now when found in the United States--to say theyare shy of man, and will not attack him, may be true enough. Strange,if the experience of 200 years' hunting, and by such hunters too, didnot bring them to that. We may safely believe, that if the lions ofAfrica were placed in the same circumstances, a very similar shyness anddread of the upright biped would soon exhibit itself. What all thesecreatures--bears, cougars, lynxes, wolves, and even alligators--are now,is no criterion of their past. Authentic history proves that theircourage, at least so far as regards man, has changed altogether sincethey first heard the sharp detonation of the deadly rifle. Evencontemporaneous history demonstrates this. In many parts of SouthAmerica, both jaguar and cougar attack man, and numerous are the deadlyencounters there. In Peru, on the eastern declivity of the Andes, largesettlements and even villages have been abandoned solely on account ofthe perilous proximity of those fierce animals.
In the United States, the cougar is hunted by dog and gun. He will runfrom the hounds, because he knows they are backed by the unerring rifleof the hunter; but should one of the yelping pack approach too near, asingle blow of the cougar's paw is sufficient to stretch him out. Whenclosely pushed, the cougar takes to a tree, and, halting in one of itsforks, humps his back, bristles his hair, looks downward with gleamingeyes, and utters a sound somewhat like the purring of a cat, though farlouder. The crack of the hunter's rifle usually puts an end to thesedemonstrations, and the cougar drops to the ground either dead orwounded. If only the latter, a desperate fight ensues between him andthe dogs, with several of whom he usually leaves a mark thatdistinguishes them for the rest of their lives.
The scream of the cougar is a common phrase. It is not very certainthat the creature is addicted to the habit of screaming, although noisesof this kind heard in the nocturnal forest have been attributed to him.Hunters, however, have certainly never heard him, and they believe thatthe scream talked about proceeds from one of the numerous species ofowls that inhabit the deep forests of America. At short intervals, thecougar does make himself heard in a note which somewhat resembles adeep-drawn sigh, or as if one were to utter with an extremely gutturalexpression the syllables "Co-oa," or "Cougar." Is it from this that hederives h
is trivial name?
